A Bit Of Bridal Veiling

 

High in the top of the clothespress

Underneath the dust of years

Was found a box of trinkets

That she saw thru a mist of tears

 

First a piece of purple velvet

Then a bit of deep point lace

At the next a pitiful quiver

O’er spread the windows face.

 

Just a bit of bridal veiling

Crushed, torn and a trace of mold

Was found on the seer rose-pedals

Intertwined within a fold

 

Tears fall fast on the creases

Twenty years since that awful night

When the black veil of a widow

Took the place of the bridal white.

 

The wreck on the banks of the river

Was the cause of each bitter tear

Oh! Those awful words in her memory

“All are safe but the engineer”!

 

And now as the years pass onward

When she walks by her lovers grave

This thought to her heart is comfort

He died but the rest were saved!

 

Written by Ida May Schaffer

Winter of 1921-1922

Age of 16