Robbed, my wife and me, and I am angry. I want justice!
Stephen W. Emerick
I didn’t even know it was happening –
in the darkness of night and sometimes
with the brightness of the rising sun’s light.
What I hold most dear –
by thieves is being taken.
Piece by piece by piece by piece.
We are being robbed –
of what is most precious to us,
being taken day by day by day.
I sought help from the Department of Justice!
And one day the response appeared…
delivered by courier, it was just what I had feared:
It read: Give up all hope.
Your wife is being robbed by dementia.
There is no recourse, no resource.
Returning home I told her: “I don’t want you to go.”
I held her in my arms and cried.
She said to me, “I know.”
It happened so quickly, I thought I would faint…
I suddenly did not know where I was and feared
being robbed again by this thief, until I heard their voices:
They were saying, “We don’t want you to go,”
as they were standing there in the garden.
While some of them prayed, I too stayed.
“You cannot come with me,” He said,
as the twelve men and several women cried out:
“Then what are we to do? We don’t want you to go!”
And there in the garden He said to us, “I know,”
just before our hearts were going to harden…
Our Master, this promise He made in the garden:
“I shall send you the Comforter
to hold you close to Me, as
you lay your prayers upon my breast.
You, like Peter, shall be put to the test,
as you walk the path of good and wondrous things
and the path of the most difficult or terrifying of times.
And where these two cross upon your path,
do not run, do not flee, for
that is where you shall find me.”
At that moment I sneezed, perhaps from a plant
there in the garden, or from some pungent weeds.
and tripping on their seeds I descended as if in a dream.
And opening my eyes – there was my wife –
still in my arms, gazing up at me…as I promised her then,
and again and again and again: I shall never run nor flee.
And somehow, at that moment, we both were set free.
(September 2025 Debbie remains at home with myself and Mr. Teco. We are where the Good Path, and the Path of Terrifying and Difficult things cross…and are finding that place…Holy.)