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June 23, 2001

MY BEAUTIFUL MARY ANN

When peace was declared and the war was done,
I found myself living in France,
They said I owed my survival
To the hand of the Lord, not to chance.

I'd been brought in with no dog tags,
My hands were too burned for prints,
There was no way to ID me,
Not a thing to give one a hint.

I tried to remember what happened,
My mind was a total blank,
No name - no serial number,
No clue to position or rank.

The only thing they found on me
Was a picture grasped in my hand,
A beautiful child in a velvet dress,
Inscribed, "Daddy, With Love, Mary Ann."

The picture, though crumpled and crushed,
Was still clear enough to see,
Yet it did not awaken my mind,
Nor stir any memories for me.

Who was this beautiful Mary Ann?
Was she really a child of mine?
And what of her mother - where was she?
Oh, so empty my poor heart and mind.

Well, a good many months later,
I was physically healed, they said,
Just a few scars and blemishes showed,
But no sign of the wound in my head.

Then, they shipped me back to the states,
With hopes that my past could be learned.
Amnesia is sometimes reversible,
Something triggers a memory's return.

I still had my picture with me,
My beautiful Mary Ann,
But where was this precious child?
So big and so vast was this land.

Time for me passed too slowly,
Not much work could this veteran find,
No one, it seems, was hiring,
A man with a part of a mind.

Summers, I played Chess in the park,
Winters, I played in a hall,
But every night I went back to my room,
Alone and depressed overall.

My beautiful Mary Ann's picture,
Now sat in a frame at my side,
I wondered where was this sweet child?
Where in this world did she hide?

One day a man came into the hall,
He said he had work for a few,
Of all of the guys, he picked me out,
Saying, "Hey - you with the beard - you'll do."

The beard I'd grown to cover my scars,
Was now bushy and nearly white,
I laughed at his reason for hiring me,
He cared naught of my mental blight.

Playing department store Santa,
Was not really my cup of tea,
But my heart brimmed over with joy,
At the smiles the kids gave to me.

And God, in His mysterious ways,
Performed a miracle one night,
For late afternoon of Christmas Eve,
You-know-who came into my sight.

My beautiful Mary Ann appeared,
Though older, I knew her at once,
The beautiful child that sat on my lap,
Meant the end of my tireless hunt.

"And, what do you want for Christmas?"
As Santa, I asked this sweet one,
Her wistful reply was, "Oh Santa,
I just want my daddy to come."

I looked at the end of the walkway,
Her dear mother, I recognized,
Oh yes, I knew that fair lady,
The one with the tears in her eyes.

In a second, the power of love
Filled a man's empty heart and soul,
And joined a family on Christmas Eve,
And made what was broken now whole.

Not the miracles of science,
Nor the skills of doctors' hands,
Held as much healing power,
As my two beautiful Mary Ann's.

Virginia (Ginny) Ellis