Gabriel
Life and death are born together
One brother sucking the other's thumb
Neither brother able to relinquish his embrace
For all of this has happened too early, too soon
And you, who have looked at the sky all your life,
Have never understood how distant are the stars
Nor how brilliant their light
And you, who have stood so long upon this cinder,
The earth, have never known how sweet and lush
Her new growth, how deep and fractured her chasms
How delicate the hair upon your beloved's neck
And you, whose body has outlived its finest hope
Did not know how such a tiny child's soul
Could encompass them all
Have never before felt how something so broken
Could be made whole again.
© Joanne Osborne-Paulson
December 29, 2007
******
Dear friends and loved ones,
With great joy and heartbreak, we wish to announce: at 10:26 PM on December 10, 2007, Gabriel Anton was born into the hands of Cathy, his midwife, sang to in the arms of his mother, rocked in the arms of his father, bathed in the arms of his grandmother, and baptized in the arms of Regula, his Parish Priest.
At just after 11 PM, he was carried to Heaven in the arms of the Angels, where we will meet him again one day. At 520 grams (1 pound 2.4 ounces), and 33 cm (13 inches) he was wee, with 10 fingers and toes, and a full head of hair. He was a perfect, but very tiny baby. 
