When she was a babe she was always happy,

that's what her parents said,

as they looked across the table to their

new kindergartner.

When she came home she was giddy,

and told them everybody liked her new lunchbox,

but a boy had pushed her and now she had a boo boo.

She broke her arm in fifth grade,

but she said it was worth it

because she went really high on the swing.

When she entered middle school she was nervous,

and she didn't let her parents walk her in,

so they watched her until she was swept away by the bell.

She spent many nights in her room doing homework,

when her parents called her down for dinner

she was reluctant,

but learned to love eating together.

It was in seventh grade she got her first boyfriend.

She let her mom help her get ready,

but she wouldn't let her walk her out,

so her parents just watched her until she was swallowed by the movie theater.

She got A's and B's until her second year of high school

when she got a C in Chemistry.

She grew more distant from her parents as she got older.

The last year of high school she researched collages and

went to her grandfathers funeral.

When she was nineteen she went to Virginia Wesleyan College,

and studied to be an Art Teacher.

She had to move away from her parents

and wouldn't let them help her move,

so they just watched as she drove away.

They loved her very much so they followed her.

And bought her a cat.

She married at thirty to a nice man,

with black hair and brown eyes.

She let her parents come to her pregnancy checkup,

and she let them hug her when she announced it was a boy.

She was forty and her child was seven when her father died.

And she wouldn't let her husband comfort her,

so he just watched as she blessed his life.

She grew old and lived in the same house for the last years of her life.

Her mother died when she was fifty five,

and she and her family cried for a long time.

Finally when her time was up she turned around and looked death in the face,

And he took the shell of a girl she had once been.

And she kept watching until she was gone.