Requiem for a fighter

There isn't really a lot I can add to this email & the attached poem. I received it from a brave lady in Wellington who is fighting Motor Neuron Disease as well. I didn't make it through the poem without a tear in my eye either. Here it is.


Hello friends,
This is Rob Muldoons daughter.
Her book is worth reading.
Merle


Hi All.

Sadly Barbara Died at home 27/04/09 at 8.15am in my arms.
She was working in the morning but suddenly went down hill on Easter Monday Afternoon
and within 4 days she could only move her eyelids. She refused to feed or drink and she
was given Madazalin & Morphine until her death.

Her Book: Losing my voice! Living with Motor Neurone Disease is selling slowly but constantly at 3 per week worldwide.

Barbara was remarkable. She had no voice and PEG fed herself but still, in her Medical Research job
Travelled to all major hospitals in Australia & New Zealand for 18 months.

By having an interface that showed and interactive keyboard on screen she worked as Research Manager
for a Drug Trials Company till 15 Days before she died. She laboriously selected on each letter with a click of her mouse.
Barbara wrote her story as to help others who suffered from MND/ALS and got great satisfaction out of being involved in OZ PALS.

Kind Regards to All
Kevin Williams

This is the poem.

The time of fairy thistledown has come
And I know, And I feel I have mastered the wind
that gently cradles their seed

The urge is so strong....
The fields are silent & green within my mind,
while the spiderweb dew no longer settles in my eye
except with the smell of the sweet manuka flower
I see, when you are holding the earth I was born on.

The time of fairy thistledown has come;
And i know and I feel you have mastered the wind
that will gently cradle your ashes.

The pain is so strong...
The fields are so silent & empty within my mind'
and the spiderweb dew has settled within my eye
as I try to smell the manuka flower again
when I walk the earth you were born on

By Kevin Williams
1st verse written 1971 at Wellington & appeared on our wedding invitation 03 June 1972
2nd verse written 04 May 2009 & read on that day at Babara's funeral