An ode to a relative I never met.
April 30, 2025
Today as I was reflecting on a recent conversation I had about some of my family history, I felt inspired to write about a relative I never met.
Her name was Miriam and she died young. I remember I was very young when I first learned about her, how as a child she’d known she wouldn’t live long and how, in an extreme version of play therapy, she dealt with that knowledge by dressing herself and her dolls in black and playing about death. As a child hearing about her, I was struck by how her story was very tragic, morbid, and sad. I still find it so, but I also think of her as a brave character. She wouldn’t have had access to much in the way of counseling back in those days, but she managed to work with what she had, which in her case, was her dolls.
Those who knew her closely have passed away, but I used details from what I was told and fact checked what I could.
So here is my ode to Miriam.
On a Sunny October Wednesday
Miriam, dear Miriam
When you were a child
You dressed up your dolls all in black
You knew it was coming
Your untimely end
A daughter, a sister, a friend
A daughter, a sister, a friend
An illness without cure
Yet no tears you cried
You knew there was nowhere to hide
You walked along bravely
Toward an early grave
To that sunny October Wednesday
To that sunny October Wednesday
Miriam, oh Miriam
Now you’ve gone away
Your dolls wait for tea
But you can’t come and play
And soon they’ll be packed up and carried away
On a sunny October Wednesday
On a sunny October Wednesday
Miriam, brave Miriam
The end drawing near
You played out your funeral
You faced all your fear
When the time came you knew you couldn’t stay
On that sunny October Wednesday
On that sunny October Wednesday
Miriam, sweet Miriam
With your family there
Your coughing subsided
And you heard a prayer
Your spirit departed and your eyes grew dim
As Death came to take you with him
Oh Death came to take you with him
Miriam, oh Miriam
Now you’ve gone away
Your dolls wait for tea
But you can’t come and play
And soon they’ll be packed up and carried away
On a sunny October Wednesday
‘Twas a sunny October Wednesday