Robert Louis Stevenson
Written on his birthday - November 13th, 1850, Edinburgh, Scotland
November 13th - the birthday of Robert Louis Stevenson My dad always told me we were somehow related Through his mother’s side of the family Wish more of his writing DNA I would have inherited Dad said that when he returned to Pittsburgh To join with family to lay his mother to rest Many Stevensons came to my grandmother’s wake And signed the register there for guests Perhaps some day my life will slow down Will dig further into my genealogy Find that treasured island in our ancestry That up until now has been lost at sea for me . . .
I see a resemblance.
Ned, Your poem today reminded me of the Robert Louis Stevenson prayer I read at my favorite aunt's funeral in 1984.
“Lord, behold our family here assembled. We thank You for this place in which we dwell, for the love accorded us this day, for the hope with which we expect the morrow; for the health, the work, the food and the bright skies that make our lives delightful; for our friends in all parts of the earth. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare us to our friends, soften us to our enemies. Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors; if it may not, give us strength to endure that which is to come that we may be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath and in all changes of fortune and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving to one another. We beseech of you this help and mercy for Christ's sake.”