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| Pat with my son on her horse Barney, in 1988 |
Love Rode By
by Pat
Loehmer
The trees
were caught in nets of mist,
The grass
the dew had kissed.
In some
small ray of June’s first light
Life sparkled
and shone bright.
Alone I walked
in fields of hay
And clover
sown in May
The birds
had sung their melodies
To no one –
only me.
Alone I saw
him riding there,
Wind
ruffled in his hair.
Strong and
free, his head thrown back,
His eyes
lay on the track.
Worlds
away he could not see
That sad
and lonely me
That from miles
away had watched
And only
understanding sought.
Of other
things he thought
And knew
not that I longed to talk
Of Beauty,
of Truth, of Greatness,
Of Life
gone by too fast.
Of other
things he knew and dreamed
Of riches
that from coffers streamed.
Power that
would make him king
And give
him almost anything.
But what
else lies in hearts of men?
What will
they do when towers fall, when
Nothing
else for them is left
Of a life
too quickly spent?
If only he
could learn to wait
Before it
is too late
To listen
to the birds that sing
The
soon-to-be memory of Spring.
But ever
forward and ride he must
Before his
life is turned to dust.
Too soon
we shall be dead.
Love rode
by,
And did not turn His head.
My sister Pat wrote the above poem
and mailed it to me, I believe, when she was in college. It’s a piece which couldn’t
quite compete with the likes of Robert Frost, but it does contain a few poignant
passages. Almost prophetic, actually.
When she was in college, she started
writing a fantasy novel, “Journey of the Shadow”. The main character was a feisty
female called Skatus, which means shadow in the language of her people. Speaking
of languages, Pat made up an entire language for her characters, along with a
map of their world and a detailed history. She was taken with Tolkien and
wanted to create her own land as complete as Middle Earth.
She worked on her novel up until her
cancer forced her into the nursing home. As much as she wanted to see it published,
she never liked the ending, having written three different versions of it.
In some ways, I think she was a much
better writer than I am. My goal is to some day find the way to publish her
novel.
In the meantime, all I got is more
pictures for you.
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| Pat on our cousin's horse Shawn around 1974 |
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| My very favorite picture. This was taken along Hwy 107 in 1981. We were driving down the road and saw this cow alone in her little pasture, and Pat wanted to stop to say "hello". |
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| In our parents' garden around 1973 |
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| More sunflowers! Mom with Pat at Pat's house in 1997 |
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