By Rhoada Wald, May, 2021

We were four

My children,

Marian, Stephen, Beth

and me.

But I really have to

count my former husband

He is family to my children.

          Actually, we were five.

Marian married George

and we were six.

Steve and Anne married

and we became seven.

When Beth married John,

we were eight.

Marian and George

had two children,

Todd and Justin.

Steve and Anne

had three,

Megan, Jonathan and Michael.

And Beth and John

had Jake. 

Two and three

and one are six.

Six and eight

are fourteen.

But now I remember,

Charly died two weeks

before Jake was born

In fact, we were only

thirteen.

          Jake was named

Jacob Charles in

memory of

his grandfather.

Justin married Jason

Todd married Marissa

Megan will soon

           marry Joe.

We became sixteen

Once we were four,

 really five

And now we are

almost seventeen.

I have three children,

Six with their spouses

Another six grandchildren

Three more by marriage.

Todd and Marissa added

one great grandchild.

Megan and Joe have

another on the way. 

Like flowers

new blossoms

form every day,

every year,

I hope forever.

And I am going

to stop counting.