A Bond Greater

In memory of Lucy Higgs Nichols

Sir: I wish to inform you that the colored Nurse and pensioner, Lucy Nichols, has died, And she now lies with her husband, John, covered In earth by the hands of those whom she walked beside.

Among the Twenty-third, Lucy and daughter walked Having run from Grey’s Creek cross the Hatchie River; At twenty-four years she’d been handled and locked And now the one taken gave, became our caregiver. You handed over Mona*, buried ‘neath Vicksburg’s flowers Even as hands nursed, carrying more than one should bear. You sang, sewed, and smiled but I fear in those hours A bond greater had escaped. Is war all we had to share? Aunt Lucy, are you now standing, hands raised, midst the surrounding Of the multitude of color, free, in joyful peace abounding?

*Mona was Lucy’s daughter.

© Randy Edwards 2016 The photo credit: Stuart B. Wrege History Room, New Albany – Floyd County Public Library. #sonnet #civilwar #lucyhiggsnichols #indiana