Lost Child

The background pp is Basic Grey's "Recess".The pp I did the journaling on is Creative Imaginations.I used my Cricut storybook cartridge to cut out the vines.I made the red flowers using my large flower punch.Butterfly from Hobby Lobby's floral dept.Word key is Tim Holtz.
I think the "poem" is pretty easy to read.I printed it out on vellum.The journaling,maybe not so much.It reads....

When my mother passed away,we were pretty close.But it wasn't always that way.At the age of 14 I started running away from home & living on the streets of Ft. Lauderdale.I'd be gone for weeks,sometimes months.I even dyed my hair brown in the hopes that she wouldn't recognize me.She did though.This photo was taken during that time by an art student.I was 16.
Some years after her death,I was going through her things when I found this "poem" scratched on a yellowed piece of paper.I know that she forgave me when she was alive,but it still hurts my heart.

After viewing this,I decided to add my mom's poem,as I couldn't read it without zooming in.It reads....
Lost Child
My daughter's gone now.
We cannot live together anymore.
She was the dearest baby of all.
Always smiling,always busy.
Never whining or demanding.
If she had no friends she did without.
Watching TV and playing with her dolls.
Creating endless projects to fill the time.
I was always sick or preoccuppied.
She never seemed to mind,
But kept her cheerfulness intact.
Without my knowing,
she had withdrawn from a lonely little girl
Into a secretive adolescent.
And as I became aware of this,
She drifted out of my life,
Into a world peopled with others like her.
Beyond my understanding and control.
It is my fault.
I love her.
And it is too late.

Written by my mom in the mid-70's.