Keiko

oso lately to my life she came,

So warm and understanding,

To cur home with her family on Christmas Eve
Brought a bowl for our Remembering.

In stricken silence now we meet

To press each others! hand;

But yesterday she held me close,

And laughed, and called me 'friend'.

Incomprehensible to us

The way she chose to go,

Nor did we feel her heart's great weight,
The desperation know.

She felt her culture made a wife
Mere shadow of her mate,

And once her sun had ceased to shine,
To be unseen, her fate.

She chose instead to soar beyond
Her sun -- not just to die

But cast her shadow overhead

Dear brave and burdened butterfly.

Three children strong and beautiful,
With their mother's matchless grace,
sustained by friends and family
Will find their treasured place.

Written with love and sympathy for Keiko's family

January 9, 1965
| 3 Jean Fahrni.