Just Like Her

Once I wanted to be "just like her,"
And my hair be a mass of black curls,
And have those dark, brown eyes,
And never have anyone see me cry.

Once I longed for all her height.
She seemed to tower me with her beauty's might.
Her soft, rich voice seemed to yell at me:
"You cannot compare! Run! Flee!"

She always received good grades
Luck seemed to come when she bade.
She was the ideal person to me,
One I could never hope to be.

Then my role model was marked for death.
A silent killer stole her breath.
Cancer in her lungs!
Why did she have to be so young?

One the day that she died, her final day,
When her family left, she asked me to stay.
She took my hand into her own,
And said, "Tonight I will be gone."

She looked into my eyes,
And then I started to cry.
Then she said as she cried too,
"I always wanted to be just like you."