A six foot farm girl from Clayton County,
she was steered by ambitious older siblings
and grew up immersed in duty;
whether chores, basketball or studies,
she was a person who took careful notes,
considered each detail from both ends
and aimed to correct every error.
As an earnest trainee at our office,
too modest to recognize her own gifts
and entirely unaware of her beauty,
she was everyone’s favorite apprentice,
guided by surrogate brothers and sisters,
though the office aunties had no help
as several long term romances fizzled.
Her approach to the job was pure Iowa,
careful stewardship and steady yields,
but her results got little notice,
and when the avalanche of layoffs came,
revealing her name on the wrong list,
Patty called it a blessing and a new start,
and set off for a future in the Cities.
In due time there was a wedding,
her groom gamely bearing the scrutiny
of her protecting host of family and admirers.
Each year the cards and messages arrived
from the woman who never forgot her friends;
then suddenly, it was that July afternoon,
the secret treason of a damaged heart,
and what remained was grief.
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