Wisdom of an Immigrant Father

My hour has come to leave

And it is sooner than I wanted

I thought I’d have more time to trade

To figure out this choice I made

When I brought you here

To a land I thought had hope

To a place I thought was better

So many things are strange now

And hard and unfamiliar now

I don’t know what the future holds for you

I have to leave you now

But you’ll have to carry on,

You’ll have to carry on

Long after I am gone

You’ll be the light, for someone dear

And you will feel me near

You’ve got a good head on your shoulders

You are the hope and love

Of all of us who came before you

Do not look down on us

We struggled with our lives

Had mistakes and corrections

Hard choices and deceptions

One thing forever true

We need forgiveness, we all do

Walk with Jesus

I leave you in his care

He will lead you to good people

And I will silently be there

A spiritual togetherness

With a father’s tenderness

With the understanding of someone

Who has played all his cards

And only two remain

One is love

And the other, hope in God

Repentance unto hope

Of salvation

For now I understand

He is the only true good land

He is the better place

I leave you in his grace

Note from the author: I wrote this inspired by my father, an immigrant and defector from communist Romania who died of a brain tumor after 8 years in America.

Read next: The Bend in the Road

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