So Hope Will Live

posted by Ruby on the 5th anniversary of her liver transplant

So Hope Will Live

We are strangers, now a family,

forever proud - not by choice -

but joined by need and joined by pain:

different lives, but common voice -

a cry for love, a cry for life,

so hope will live, eternally,

born of saddest irony.

Life will never be the same -

not for you and not for me.

One you love - who shares your name -

now is gone, but I remain:

a second chance, a new domain -

a gift of life that lives in me -

strangers now a family

Know that I am grateful

for the life you gave to me.

May my life give you light

wherever you may be.

And may my life bring comfort

from the pain that hurts you so:

we are strangers now a family,

wherever we may go.

And may the life that lives in me

shine a light so all can see

that life goes on, ironically,

when we choose to donate life,

so hope will live, eternally.

~Daniel Mark Extrom