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My last words to you were "I love you."
I said, "Be careful, my dear."
How was I to know that you wouldn't be here?
In another city, in another state,
Some drunk and drugged up driver
Sped down the interstate.
She was drinking heavily;
You could smell it on her breath.
She was under intoxication
Of the drug that they call meth.
She was asked to pull over;
She took off in a flash.
That woman hit you from behind
And caused that dreadful crash.
She denied that she knew
What she was doing was wrong.
But her day of punishment is coming;
Lord, it won't be long.
What sense does this make?
Now she claims to be bi-polar.
Our grief is still fresh and new,
Our feelings for her are growing colder.
She feels no remorse for what she did to you,
What exactly she took from us.
You may feel no pain,
But our grief is so intense.
We will never be able to forget;
We will never be able to rest.
As you laid in that bed
Taking your final breath,
I got the call that changed my life,
The call that felt like death.
Now that you are in heaven,
Let the drunk drivers know
How the table turns,
How the story goes.
Your legacy lives on
Even though you just turned 18.
We let them all know
Exactly what it means.
I'm so glad I got to know you;
Those final words I said
Mean so much more to me now
Than I ever would have dreamed.
Help us to tell everyone
That drinking and driving is wrong.
'Only the good die young,
and only the bad live on.'
My last words to you were "I love you."
I said, "Be careful, my dear."
How was I to know that you wouldn't be here?
But you are still so very near.
© 2004, Maria Burden [e-mail: srainbowma(at)aol.com]. All rights reserved.
(The author, Maria, writes: "Toni died on June 26, 2000 at 9:30 p.m. in San Diego, California. She was one of my best friends and like a sister to me. I am still outraged about what happened. She was traveling on I-8 in California on her way to Sea World. She was with her fiance' and his parents. A drunk driver who was also taking pills for bi-polar and under the influence of methamphedamine was being pursued by the cops and wouldn't slow down, even after her vehicle's tires were blown out by stop sticks. She hit the car that Toni was in at 100 MPH. She sent the car down a 60-foot ravine. No one else was critically injured. Toni was at the point of impact. She did not make it through the night. Another woman in our service organization was killed by a drunk driver. I'm tired of this and I think it is about time something real should be done. I wrote this poem as a tribute to Toni's life and to make people aware of the evils of drinking and driving.")
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