12th May 1996 My Mum Died

 well thanks for the reads

20 countries yesterday on Wordpress, 10 so far today

here on my 3 Bloggers, 10 countries or so, as far as the day goes

Tonight into the morning marks my mum's Quing Ming as the Chinese say

She went to bed and died besides my dad

read Padre Pio and Me for more

Her death set off a chain of events

8 weeks day my dad nearly died too

but Padre Pio really did come to the rescue

Finally 3 years later, after visiting him

every single day, I ended up with a Shanghai wife

The 12th May when mum died, they all stopped up

through the night and listened to Celine Dion on the radio

You Lifted Me Up was the song

so Health and Happiness to Celine too

that song has become part of the family now

Dad said mum was as strong as a horse

And he was a Blacksmith so a perfect compliment

which makes me a SOB, Son of a Blacksmith

May also marks the month when Chinese Grandpa died

in 2004 And if you go to a Graveyard in Shanghai

you can see my name on his tomb, the son in law

michaelgcasey in gold lettering on a black stone

His ashes were interred and my bigger daughter was there

she put a Christmas card on top of the box with his ashes in

I was left holding the baby back home in Birmingham

May was also the month when I had one our lodgers die

on me he had a heart attack and I had to deal with it

I was still 20 then

So May is full of memories for me

And this is a poem I wrote on a bus in November 1987

I wanted the Undertaker to be a poet, I was still writing

The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker by Michael Casey (me)

The Dead and The Living (c)

 

                           by

          

                     Michael  Casey

 

 

     I first saw a deceased when I was nine years old ,my father said  not

 

     to worry as the dead are the same as the living ,  only the  laughter

 

     has left them ,  the sparkle has gone from their eyes , the worry has

 

     been lifted from their shoulders ,  and their voice has vanished  to

 

     eternity .

 

     In  paradise the sparkle will return for it is the  twinkle  of  the

 

     stars , the laughter will return too for it is the morning breeze and

 

     the turning tides are their sides shaking with laughter .

    

     I treat the deceased with the same courtesy as I give to the living,

 

     though I find the deceased are always more polite .  My father also

 

     had a few words to say about the living .

 

     He said that the living are only the caretakers of the  soul  ,  yet

 

     they think their existence is everything , that they know everything

 

      because they experience many things with their senses .

 

      What the living don't acknowledge is that their time is  short  and

 

      when I lay their bodies to rest then their souls  continue  without

 

      them ,  without their strong ,  without their weak ,  without  their

 

      beautiful or even ugly temporary form , to where I cannot say , only

 

      that it is a better place .

 

      Percy the undertaker placed the lid on the coffin ,the soul was free

 

 

                          THE  BEGINNING

 

so there you go, now you know what May means to me

I also know for a fact, 

my Mum is leading the prayers for Peace in Ukraine

she always had the Rosary on the go, with her hand in her pocket

as she watched tv too

as I remember my mother the last time I saw her alive, in her blue smock, 

she is part of Mary's Blue Army