Jeanine My Sister By Jim Gandolf

Jeanine My Sister 

Poem 

By: Jim Gandolf 

©️XXMMXXVIWMA

Jeanine My Sister 

She wore the sunlight in her hair,

A platinum shine when life was young,

A constant spirit waiting there,

With every chant and victory sung.

From Pop Warner fields where autumn blew,

To all the sidelines of my youth,

She was the loudest voice I knew,

A steady anchor bound in truth.

Born in sixty-nine, four years behind,

Yet trailing wisdom in her wake—

The jagged roads that she would find,

The choices that we learn to make.

For family is a winding road,

Of shadowed days and golden light,

And through the storms that came and showed,

The bonds of love held firm and tight.

In twenty-twelve the silence fell,

A battle fought against the breath,

Yet stories that I loved to tell

Outshine the darkness of her death.

She left behind two precious lives,

Two children that I deeply hold,

In whom her living spark survives,

Reflecting bright as childhood gold.

A lifetime shared of wild domain,

The good, the hard, the unforgot—

Through every joy and every pain,

She gave myself lessons time cannot.

Though Jeanine’s song has reached its end,

Her cheering ghost still echoes clear:

A sister, guide, and faithful friend,

Forever loved, forever near.

Jim Gandolf