The Cork University Maternity Hospital’s Annual Service of Remembrance is later this evening (Friday, 11th October 2013, 7pm). I’m reminded of this poem by Pádraig Ó Tuama from his collection Sorry for Your Troubles (thanks again, Richard, for the recommendation).

And isn’t it true for all of us

and isn’t it true for all of us
that we need someone
to watch us when we leave
and when we need
to make our own
way home,
when we’re making something we can’t see,
or when we’re shaping up to be
a person that can feel
a hundred sorrows and still
get through the day
who could dream a hundred horrors
and make it anyway,

isn’t it true for all of us
that we need a guiding
other,
maybe mother, maybe lover,
maybe nothing other than a stranger,
who could see our fear,
and with kindness then, unfold a welcome,

isn’t it true for all of us
that we need our secrets told
and that without another
to bear witness to the children
that were never born,
and would never be a grown-up
we would be alone and lost and cold,
there would be childish hungers left
inside of us,
needing to grow old.