We went to Elementary School together, played hop-scotch and jump-rope. She was a beautiful platinum blond with a friendly smile and a kind heart. In junior high I moved away for a couple of years. When I moved back, we were in our third year of High School. We attended Norwich Free Academy which had a school body of about 3300 students. She, being from a well-to-do family, was in the upper crust clique. I was a natural loner and belonged to none. When we ran into each other, our childhood friendship would emerge and we would have wonderful conversations. Sometimes I felt she was dissatisfied with her life. She once shared that she rarely dated. I was shocked. She was gorgeous. She said it seemed guys were afraid to ask.
Thinking of her always made me smile. That is until a couple of years after graduation, when I found out she had died, trapped in a horrific fire in a disco in Connecticut. I realized in my immortal-minded youth, I had never shared the most important information in my life. I don’t believe in forcing God on someone but I didn’t even give her an opportunity to decide if God was who she wanted.
Poems are not my forte, but I wrote this one to help me deal with the loss of my friend.
Cindy
By Carolyn Torbett Johnson
Why did she have to go so fast
Her very life slipped from my grasp
I did not realize that she
Was part of mere humanity
That’s gone before us through that door
Marked death to live forevermore
But I was blind, I would not see
Her fate it seems had rest on me
I always meant to tell the plan
That God gave down to fallen man
I never seemed to find the time
The blood-stained hands I see are mine
Why did she have to go so fast
I would have told her at the last
I would have told of Jesus’ birth
Of why He came to us on earth
Of heavenly scenes, of beauty rare
Of hope, of joy beyond compare
But life is gone, she can not hear
And I am left here with my fear
Why did she have to go so fast
Her life is gone, my chance is past
carolyntorbettjohnson 