New Life

I stand on one side

My hands wrapped tightly

Around the cool aluminum tubes

Of her walker

So that I have to bend over slightly

To offer stability

For her, now stiff,

Puppet like movements

My dad is on the other side

Showing no emotion

Just down to business

His unchanging nature

Somehow comforting

What used to feel impenetrable

Is now something I can lean into

She can lean on.

“I want to walk in the snow!”

Everything now through a

This may be the last time

Lens

Our harmonic trio pushed forward

A song we knew

Over the threshold

My foot

 

Awkwardly holds open the door

Her face, still familiar

Despite the glassy flatness in her eyes

The lines around her mouth

Waves of skin

Now taken the shape

Of many years

Telling her story

Now expressionless expression

As her bo

dy has become

A prison.

Outside

In the snow

She emerged; spirit alive

“Farther, I want to go farther!”

She was, all at once

A child, a woman

My mother, my daughter.

My father and I

A reluctant team

Steadied her

To the end of the driveway

We were her limit

Helping her turn

And Return

Over the threshold

Into the warmth

Where, once settled in her chair

She resumed herself

And asked me to straighten the rug

The old sound of demand

Now a voice claiming its soul

I am tired

I said,

I wrapped my words in love

And left the room

Willing myself

To Love Myself along this journey.

 

 

Janet Elizabeth Hartwick Sterk

2.4.2026