The 'Ol Poet Brought Back a Memory

About six months after Corey and Carley were born, Children's Mercy Hospital did a remembrance day for all of the families that had lost a child. The highlight of the event was when we all gathered in the courtyard and released butterflies in memory of our babies.

After a prayer, everybody opened up a beautiful paper container and thousands of butterflies took flight simultaneously. The beauty and significance of it was surreal, an image nearly impossible to convey to people who weren't there. My father, however, nailed it in this poem he wrote yesterday. This is the story of what our butterfly, released for Carley, actually did to her surviving twin brother Corey.

The Butterfly
By Old Irish

Your parents opened up the box and sunlight filtered in.
She fluttered to your baby face, this butterfly, your twin.
She kissed you on your tiny lips, and said you'd be O.K.
She stayed with you a little while, before she flew away.
And as she left she hovered,
Gave Mom and Dad a nod.
Then fluttered back to Heaven,
To spend more time with God.