38 Comments
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Chano's avatar

This poem touched my heart, and as a retired school teacher, visualizing you with the students brought back many memories. You were a blessing then, and I believe you still are today. Your writing and your story truly moved me!

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Thank you for your thoughtful comments and for taking the time to leave them. I’m glad to hear the poem and McKenzie’s story touched your heart. She was a very special little girl.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

I believe that, too, Rosemary. It was a blessing. Thank you for the restack of this post.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Thank you for your direction, your support, and for restacking this post.

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Victory Palace's avatar

Beautiful story and poem. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy..." to quote Shakespeare. There's way more things going on beyond what our eyes can see, so much our senses filter out; and it's stories like these that remind/reassure us there's a "beyond".

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Thank you Victory. Your quote is so true —there is so much more going on than what we see every day. In this case, it took three years to happen and seemed so “against all odds”.

Thank you again.

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Charlotte Pendragon's avatar

I just had a heartfelt cry, and I'm still feeling overcome with emotion. It's not from sadness, but from the realization that our world goes beyond what we can see. There's a deeper realm, a third dimension where our Creator watches over us all. Absolutely beautiful C. J.

✨💜🙏

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Valerie Nettles's avatar

Beautiful!

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Thank you, Valerie. I’m pleased the story touched you. It was and probably always will be my most humbling experience.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Thank you for the restack, Dave Williams!

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Jo-Ann Petrarca's avatar

CJ, this poem was just what the parents needed. Blessings…

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C.J. Heck's avatar

I think you’re right, Jo-Ann. The Universe knew what it was doing when it led me to write the poem three years before.

Thank you for your thoughts!

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Jo-Ann Petrarca's avatar

You’re welcome

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Marty D. Snow's avatar

Wow!

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Wow is good. Thank you, Marty.

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Harley King's avatar

Powerful, touching story and poem.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Thank you for your kind words and for restacking my post, Harley.

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Gary Gruber's avatar

Whew!

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Ene's avatar

Extraordinarily moving and beautiful C.J…💕

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Ene's avatar

I can only imagine, C.J.

As humans, there is so much we do not know about spirituality…

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C.J. Heck's avatar

I agree, Ene

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Thank you, Ene. You’re very kind. It was a most humbling experience.

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Connie J. Casella's avatar

I loved your poem! Great inspiration! I should post some of my poems that I wrote years ago when I was attending the (former) Presbyterian Church.

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Francesca Bossert's avatar

Shivers and tears, it’s just beautiful 💫

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C.J. Heck's avatar

That’s how it has effected me, Francesca. There is no other way for me to describe how it made me feel. Your words have exactly captured all of it.

It was all centered on a poem that came out of nowhere, unlike anything I ever write for children, and three years later a child tells everyone she isn’t afraid to die because she is the child angel in the poem —it is about her; a week later she dies in a car accident and my poem is in a cemetery in Ohio etched on a gravestone.

It frightened me, like something supernatural and it gave me shivers. It still does.

I cried for the tragedy of it all and I cried for the honor her family gave me, which was humbling and yet beautiful and it was all because of a poem that came too easily 3 years before and I almost didn’t include in my first book.

Francesca, thank you. You have been the only one who really sees the whole picture exactly as it was.

Thank you.

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Francesca Bossert's avatar

Definitely other worldly. It’s really affected me thinking about it. Spooky and gorgeous don’t normally go together, but in this case they do. ❤️

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C.J. Heck's avatar

They do and once again, I thank you, Francesca.

💞❤️

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Simone Senisin's avatar

💜💜💜💜😇❤️🥰

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David Perlmutter's avatar

A sad thing is the death of a child at any time. This poem is sort of a counterpart to Eugene Field's "Little Boy Blue", about the toys of the title character waiting him to return in vain....

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Yes, the death of a child is always sad, but Little Boy Blue is a poem.

McKenzie’s story is centered around her, a real little girl who read a poem, told everyone she saw herself as the child in the poem, an angel, and then shortly after, she died in a car accident. It’s a true story.

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David Perlmutter's avatar

It hits deeper because it really happened....

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Yes. I agree. I think it hits me so deeply because I was right in the middle. I wrote the poem and wondered why. Three years later I found out why.

Kind of spooky.

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