My sister wrote poems for members of her family to express how she felt about them and about her life. One of my favorites is “The Best Things in Life.” In reproducing the poem below, I have modified the final verse for reasons I will explain later in this post:
The best things in life are never for sale.
They aren't sold in stores or sent in the mail.
The best things in life are always free.
Like the moon and the stars, the waves and the sea.
The best things in life don't have a price.
But you can usually get them by just being nice.
The best things in life are family and friends.
That never changes no matter what trends.
We don’t know exactly when my sister wrote “The Best Things in Life,” just that it was found among her papers after she passed in August 2024. No one in the family knew it existed. Thus, when her oldest son read it aloud at her memorial service everyone was hearing it for the first time. That was a poignant moment.
In her final verse she mentioned her five grandchildren as being the best things in her life. In fact, the whole poem was a gentle reminder to all of them about what’s important, especially the third verse.
Not everyone has grandchildren (including me), so in posting her poem in the Mud Bay Blog, I revised the final two lines to make it more universal. Surely, everyone has family and friends. If not, they are missing the best things in life. But make no mistake, this is her poem — the simple beauty, the images, the flow.
So long, Marian. You were my best thing in my life.
Mud Bay Blog 