Betty Smythe
Like a thief in the night you hide your presence
in the most unusual ways.
Your clothe yourself in darkness and desperately try to
avoid light being cast on you.
You make no advance reservation, nor do you send out notices
of your arrival time.
You most often bring with you sadness and only occasionally
do you bring happiness.
You rarely are a welcome visitor and your host secretly
wishes you had never arrived.
You are no respecter of persons, for you will visit each of
us at sometime in our lives.
You visit the rich, the poor, the old and young, those of
every race and creed, the prepared and the unprepared.
You are the most difficult visitor of all to make to feel
welcome or to entertain.
Your visit is often brief, for you accomplish your purpose
quickly and as unexpectedly as your arrival.
You always take away with you much more than you brought.
You take the happiness, the beauty, the future, and the very
breath of life of your host.
We watch you often as you visit others, but rarely do we
expect to be the next one visited.
Someday will we be so prepared that we will place a welcome mat out for you--
A mat inscribed with the words, "Oh Death, where is your Victory?
Oh grave, where is your Sting?"