Given Time

Brenda, lately very frail
I telephoned, "How are you?"
"I'm in bed", she sadly said
Next day again I rang.

Then she told me from her bed
"I cannot eat". I thought "Why not?"
When I asked, "Don't interfere! Leave me alone!"
I felt humiliated.

Then hospitalised, Brenda almost died,
the cause pneumonia and
Only just did she survive.
At home once more, she rang me.

"I've lost weight; my clothes don't fit".
To her daughter, Lee, I wrote,
"She needs this, and she needs that.
And not to be in bed, she should sit up."

Then I heard, "She's gone away.
She's with her son on holiday".
Had I interfered too much?
When by the door a card did lie
From daughter, Lee, "Thanks, she's on the mend."