After years of being unlinked
But spending my time sealing
My ancestors in a direct line
Back to my first parents
Adam and Eve (unknown to me
Except for biblical passages),
I find myself linked…sealed
To most of my great heritage
Through the work of others,
And as a result of my own efforts
In diligent genealogical research
And vicarious temple ceremonies
For my departed loved ones
For the past forty-seven years
How does it feel to be linked?
No longer the orphan child
Lost in eternity, I have claim
To distinct eternal blessings
Promised in the sacred temple
Of eternal parentage, with my own
Dear parents, Stanley and Evelyn
After so many years of waiting,
These blessings are now claimed
“As if I was born with them”
I felt my mom’s smiles as we
Journeyed through the temple
Yesterday, she was by my side
Thinking “Hmm…so this is what
It’s all about”, for many years
We talked of her temple work
But it didn’t happen until after
Her death a year ago to the day
She is now sealed to my father
Their marriage interrupted long ago
By his sudden unexpected death
In an airplane accident in 1945.
She missed him her entire life
And it created a silence between us
That I could not gulf as she hid
Her deep despair and grief from me
I saw her silent tears in the first years
Of her widowhood but they were later
Replaced by her not feeling or hidding
What she really felt, now we are
Freed by her death to create a more
Honest relationship, although limited
By her absence from my daily life,
I know she is there somewhere
Going forward with her progression
Unlimited by earthly separation
From the love of her life, they are
Together forever, an eternal family
One day I will join them, our posterity
Now linked as a giant family tree
With no orphans or forgotten ones
Roots and branches finally linked