in our family, I am the one
who has to be level headed
to comfort and console,
but when the crisis is over,
I am the one who is shaking like a leaf.
The first time I was called upon,
was when I was twelve or thirteen.
It was to my brother
who was brought up by my grandparents.
(Though I did not know,
he was my brother then)
My grandparents had just died
and Bill was so upset,
and it was left to me
to console and comfort him.
We went for a walk and talked all the while.
When we got home, he felt better after that.
One day my youngest son
while out collecting
a penny for the Guy,
dashed across the road
straight into the side
of a passing car.
He was all right,
just minor cuts and bruises,
but it was left to me
to calm down my wife
and comfort the driver a bit.
Now my eldest son
is another case,
and what I am about to relate
may seem fiction,
but it is the truth.
He was working for a Naval tailors
and they use potassium cyanide
to clean the gold braid.
They kept it in crystal form.
When his then girlfriend ditched him,
he decided to take some of the cyanide.
He diluted it twice,
once with water
and a second time with tea.
He survived by some miracle,
do not ask me how.
He just did.
While everyone was falling
to pieces at the hospital.
It was again left to me
to stand up and be counted,
be level headed again.
Of course, when I saw him
lying in the hospital bed,
I instinctively knew that he would be OK.
My job was to convince everyone
of the fact that he would be OK.
Happily, I was right
and a week later,
he came out of hospital.
Today he and his wife
have a business of their own.
He has several children
and a grand daughter Emily May.
As for me, well I still get called
for any emergency.
I am the calming factor of our family.
The one who never loses it
when a crisis is around.
21 February 2008