Narration by Val Cole

Get to know the poet:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

What my wife and I were experiencing when we got her diagnosis and later learned she would indeed die

2) What motivated you to write this poem?

It helped me to put into words a lot of what I was dealing with...from when she got her diagnosis to the day she died was just five months

3) How long have you been writing poetry?

This was really my first as a professional writer...I wrote a few when I was much younger

4) If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would
that be?

My wife

5) What influenced you to submit to have your poetry performed by a
professional actor?

I had a memorial service for my wife and read it aloud to those in attendance...but it's nice to hear someone else speak my words

6) Do you write other works? scripts? Short Stories? Etc..?

I've written five features and two shorts

7) What is your passion in life?

My family...my second career as an actor and writer...enjoying what I can and being relatively healthy

POEM:

There was a man who had a wife
He thought she would be with him the rest of his life
They had been together so many years
Through good times and bad, through laughter and tears
It wasn’t always easy but as the years passed
They created a life together they thought would last
When one day an intruder made its presence appear
You’re not wanted…get out of here!
But it refused to leave and continued to spread
The man and wife were now filled with dread
There was hope for treatment but she wouldn’t be cured
Their bond was tested yet their faith endured
But things happened so quickly and so fast
The man soon realized this cannot last
As her condition worsened he grew sad
Taking solace in the memories of the life they once had
With each passing week she could do less and less
He tried holding it together but was a bit of a mess
And a decision was made while she lay in bed
Not to continue to treat her but comfort her instead
He thought of all that had happened before
As she closed her eyes which would open no more
And it came to be before too long
This angel named Angela was called home and gone