A Child’s View of Death

On January 24, 1935, Jeanette Hardage’s younger brother Patrick died when he was not quite 7 weeks old. She included a poem about this experience in her Faith and Other Matters collection under the title of “Susie’s Question.” Since she was only just approaching her 4^th birthday at the time of his death, it must have been one of her earliest memories.

The previously published version of the poem puts the experience in the third person, ascribing it to a fictional girl named “Susie.” This was an occasional subterfuge of Jeanette’s which, I believe, tended to weaken her poetic impact. In the case of “Susie’s Question,” she pulled away somewhat from the raw emotion of the situation and started to analyze it.

Jeanette left a handwritten, probably older version of the poem in her files which addresses the same subject in more powerful, personal way. I believe it is well worth sharing; it is this version that you see below. She probably did not consider it finished in this form, thus the title is not hers.

Daddy’s Tears

Daddy cried when our baby died.
My three-year-old mind couldn’t comprehend
But I knew for the first time a great sadness.
I cried too.
Where was Mother?
Off doing her own crying,
Hidden crying,
But Daddy’s tears were there to see.
Daddy cried when our baby died.