If you think this is inappropriate John, please remove. But I always find it so touching, it says so much whether you are religious or not. And so applies in this case:
The Other Mother
No book of Holy Writ records her name
She lived and died unknown, although her son
Became a sign for infamy and shame
Judas Iscariot, the evil one
She must have dreamed of him as mothers do
The months she cherished him before his birth
And watched with pride and gladness as he grew,
To manhood’s stature, great upon the earth.
When she beheld him on that blessed day
Follow the Holy Man of Galilee,
How would she see the cross along the way
A premonition of the pain to be?
But when his sin of avarice was paid
Its wage of death, what anguish did she know!
Surely her soul walked with him, hurt afraid,
Along the tortured trail they both must go.
Taking his retribution as her own,
Pain would she have suffered in his stead,
But in a potter’s field her son lay dead
By his own hand. She drained her cup alone.
She reaches down the corridor of years,
She mourns with grieving mothers of all lands;
Wherever hearts are broken, bathed in tears,
For children’s sins her tragic shadow stands.
Miranda Snow Walton
