WELCOME TO THE FAMILY
The meal all prepared and the table set,
Most of the guests now arrived and met,
A happy gathering from far and wide,
Soon would come the blushing bride.

A shower party that was to be very special
By the great gathering, that you could tell,
The weather was perfect, the sun so bright
And everywhere looked a picture of delight.

She entered the room not understanding at all,
Her wheelchair scraped noisily by the door,
‘All this for me?’ but you don’t know me well,
‘Soon you will be family this is one way to tell.

Placed at the head of the table, with shouts of joy,
The food was wonderful, nothing did at all annoy
That meal where all chatted and made her family,
No one mentioned the wheelchair, her incapacity.

Then came the opening of the gifts her face alight,
Each gift great and small was such a great sight,
This was not a tradition from whence she came,
She felt that this joy could never ever come again.

Tears flowed down her face, sweet caring was found,
From almost total strangers there came a loving sound
Of being called sister and daughter, and call me mom,
So much different from where she had come from.

A poor little cripple girl shunned her whole life through,
Parents thought her a burden, her other relatives did too,
But these people were loving and kind in every way
For the first time in her life she felt accepted that day.

After the wedding, to which her family never came
That love increased and she felt no disgrace or shame,
Only love and acceptance that filled her life with joy,
Then the jewel a year later she had a little baby boy.

(Millicent) Ann Margetson 13 July 2004