Beloved

Beloved. If I should die

leaving unsaid, the many things

my heart would say

But lips refuse to utter

Think well of me

and in the silence of the night,

Remember

Think of those days not so many years ago

when you and I were wed

The world at war

The wonderful times we had

The precious hours snatched

as best we could

Then came the time that I must go

To where the war was real

and you remain to do your best

In my own native land.

My grandfather came from England as a young man and worked for the Bank of Commerce in Lake Saskatoon. He married my grandmother, a third generation Canadian in 1915.  After my grandfather enlisted to fight in WW I, my grandmother went to England to be near him. She lived with his brother and sister-in-law and worked in a munitions factory.  My grandparents were married for 62 years.

I found his poem in my mom's papers.