There are no words I can use

A dear family I know and love has lost a child in a tragic accident over the weekend. There are no words I can use to express myself adequately. So I leave a poem my wife found and shared with me, a poem that I feel best captures what I wish I could express. For my words fail me.

When You Meet Someone Deep In Grief

Slip off your needs
and set them by the door.

Enter barefoot
this darkened chapel

hollowed by loss
hallowed by sorrow

it’s gray stone walls
and floor.

You, congregation
of one

are here to listen
not to sing.

Kneel in the back pew.
Make no sound,

let the candles
speak.

Patricia McKernon Runkle

In memory of Lydia.