Where You Are
A Poetic Memorial
by
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MEMORY Before my son Allan died I never really thought about what people do in special memory of their child. After all, I never had a loved one die, so I did not have a reason to look at this part of life. His death was so sudden that my first memories were only imaginations of the accident and the immediate circumstances. I could only gather in my mind; quick pictures of him driving his truck. He drove a black Chevy S-10 pick-up truck. I was in deep anguish, unable to grasp anything that made sense, or anything in the real world. At the funeral new memories were created. These memories were such things as the spread of flowers with the coke-a-cola polar bear placed in the casket. A ribbon was attached to the bear with the words "Best Buddy" signatured on it. My mother had written a poem stating that Allan was best buddy to his mom. We decided to have Allan's friends as the pallbearers. One of those friends had a tattoo with Allan's initials "A.N.S." engraved on his arm. This was another bitter-sweet memory made. Only days after the funeral, I gathered Allan's pictures and made a photo album. I could not view enough of Allan's pictures. I looked at them constantly. I cried and I cried. The tears helped in healing my broken heart. They hurt, but crying was necessary to keep my sanity. We discussed the events of Allan's life in that last week. We came to find out that he visited a childhood friend he had not seen in 10 years. He attended church the Sunday before, which was not a regular occurrence for Allan. It seemed as if he knew in some strange way that he was going to be leaving us. The first Christmas Holiday without Allan was celebrated with lighting our pine tree with all blue lights and decorating it with weather proof ornaments. All contributed by those that love and miss Allan. To this day I have a tree out in my yard and I have blue lights placed on it, with special memories throughout the Christmas Holidays. Placing a special message on a Helium balloon and letting it rise up until it was completely out of site was a way that we could speak to Allan. It brought special comfort when all of my family did the same thing at one of our yearly family reunions. Standing at his grave on July 3rd, 1995, my family and I lit candles. Again....in memory. There are a number of other things done with memory of our loved ones in mind. This is something that I will do the rest of my life. It has now become a regular part of my life. I will remember.
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About the Book
This is an inspirational book. The poetry and dialogue in my book resembles a chain and its links. I have connected the dialogues and the poetry in such a way as to have the links hold the chain together. The words between the poetry have special linking messages. This is a poetic story with a journey from sorrow, pain and grief to hope, happiness and peace. This is the first book in a series. I would like to have my books relate to messages bringing hope and healing to the grieved person. I want the content of my writings to comfort the person who has had a major loss in their life. I do not know how many books will be in the series at the time of this writing, because I write my messages as I am inspired to, on a day to day basis. The reason this book is called a Poetic Memorial, is because it is put together with memories of a very special person upon my heart. Seven years ago my son, Allan died at the age of 19. Now, what I write is not meant to be solely grief related. I have included some of my general poems in the book. Two of them being 'Friends' and 'Nature'. As well, I have added two poems that Allan wrote before he died. I have included some of my mother's poems. My mother wrote one in memory of Allan, while others that she wrote are not grief related at all. Poems that my grandmother wrote are included too. 'Where You Are', it's the place so many of our loved ones have gone. We call it Heaven. One minute you're sitting with them watching an adventure movie. Then in the next moment your sitting alone asking yourself 'Why?'. You ask, 'Where did they go?' Does anybody have answers to these agonizing questions? We wonder if anyone really even cares! The answer is, many do. Those who do really care have walked in much the same painful path as you. This is a journey that no one should have to travel. It is hard, so very hard to come out of the world of grief. There is hope and I have some encouraging news from Heaven to share with you. I bring hope from the place called Where You Are, which I also call Heaven. As I have said, this is an inspirational book. In here you will find a variety of poetry and dialogues. Though most of the poetry and dialogue are my own, others have contributed poetry too. The dialogue is both in the format of poetry and prophecy.
About the Author
My name is Diane King. Peter King and I were married on March 13th, 2000. In the process of writing the first edition of Where You Are, my name was Diane Smitley. I lived in Garden City, Michigan for the most part of my life. I have six brothers and one sister. In 1971 I made a promise to my mother that I would finish high school, and one year later I did just that. That year I also married the man with whom I bore two children. Allan arrived in 1974 and my daughter Andrea followed behind four years later. My daughter Andrea has given me a beautiful grand daughter. Her name is Heaven Leigh Kayal. I dedicated my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ just before my son Allan was born. I have a sanguine personality. All of my life I tried to keep a good attitude about what life would bring me. Sometimes this was difficult to accomplish. I have always been interested in writing. I wrote to my first pen pal when I was ten years old. I began to journal when I was 30 years of age. I learned to journal from one of the counselors I talked to at that time. I had been through a troubled child hood and as a result I had some relationship difficulties to resolve. I had thought I went through one of the toughest kind of lives, being abused when a child and living in alcoholic surroundings. When my first born child died in a tragic accident in 1994 it made every other experience minor in comparison. I was only 39 years old at that time. I received the Lord Jesus Christ into my heart in the year 1973. At that time I chose to live my life with His direction foremost in all of my decisions. I have wavered in and out in my walk of faith, but I am still dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ today. This is a whole different story in itself. I will share it with others after I have told my story about coming through what I call my, season with sorrow. I have mentioned my son Allan who was born in 1974. I also have a daughter, Andrea. She was born in 1978. She has a little girl that has the name Heaven Leigh. My poem 'Where You Are' has a line in it stating, as if I were talking to my son Allan; 'you have a niece whose name is Heaven, She turned two in 97', she'll learn of the place you now live, for it is the name her mom did give.' I learned how to use the computer in 1999, only two years ago. With my love for writing and editing, I have learned how to set up web sites. I have a number of web sites that I continue to change and rearrange. I find it a joy, and a great pass time. It is challenging and relaxing to me at the same time. I entered a poetry contest called 'The Rainbow Run'. This was a friendship group that was on the internet. I received an award, my poem 'Creative' came in 4th place in that contest. I had my poem 'Halloween' published in A Trusting Heart with the international library of Poetry. My poem 'Dreamin' Dreams' has been made into a song. I have had a demonstration CD made. I believe that a lot of things can become of my poetry. I write a bi-monthly flyer. Some of the messages that I shared in past flyers are included in this book. I write the flyer because I want to develop my writing skills. I consider myself an amateur writer. I hope to one day step up a little bit and become a professional writer. I live in the State of Tennessee, out in the country. I live in the house that my husband Peter built, up on a hill. I am very happy, my life made a surprising change in 1998. I hope I am successful with this book, for then I plan to write further stories. I will always enjoy writing.