Invictus is a Victorian poem written by the English poet William Ernest Henley. The word invictus is Latin for “unconquered”. Nelson Mandela found strength and inspiration in the poem and would read it to his fellow prisoners in the Robben Island Jail. I printed out the poem and taped it to the kitchen cupboard just after Jordan got home from his first hospitalization in Penticton. I told him the background – that it had inspired Nelson Mandela to hang on and stay strong – and I told him that I believed with all my heart that he too had the strength to be the master of his fate, the captain of his soul.

Now both Jordan and Nelson are gone and the poem still faces me every time I reach for the salt and pepper. While a reminder of our lost hopes, the words still remain a source of comfort. I doubt we will ever take it down.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.