Mama and I lived many miles apart,
and when I knew I'd be visiting her I'd feel fluttering in my heart.

Our visits were infrequent not by choice but necessity,
as we neared her house the excitement would grow inside of me.

She being elderly and ill had to sit in her chair,
and  because of disk injury, bending over her caused me fear.

So I'd enter her room and quickly fall on my knees,
"Hello Mama give me a big hug please".

Sometimes those hugs would cause my neck some pain,
but not for even one instant would I ever complain.

For over three years this is the way we would greet each other,
nothing was more precious to me that those hugs from my mother.

Mama's passed on now. No more of those visits will there be,
but those hugs we shared still bring happiness to me.

Any time I miss her and feel pangs of sadness or regret,
I simply recall those hugs they still warm my heart yet.

The love and caring those hugs conveyed to me,
are still here inside where they will forever be.

One day we'll all be together once more,
and we'll be able to hug standing up, no need to kneel on the floor.

Until that hug which is in the future, a date to us unknown,
I'll treasure Mama's hugs in my memory with any other love I've known.