i need some help here peeps.

If you don't write poetry, why not just write something kinda free-flowing from your heart..like one of those free-verse greeting cards. Not really poetry but more poetic than plain prose. Add some line breaks and it will have the effect you are looking for. you could even find a blank-inside greeting card with a nice picture on the front.

Ditto.

Just follow your thoughts.

When my mother was dying of cancer I probably would have wanted to channel Gorey or Addams, some enchanting piece involving boiling oil, so it's good that the idea didn't come to me at the time.

Follow your thoughts, and good luck. There's no right/wrong - surely yours is an instance of "It's the thought that counts". Unlike the case of my mother.

I need a devil icon here with horns. Where the devil is it?

Also, get it written while she can still read and appreciate it. Don't lose all kinds of time over construction of the message. I am not being flip. You have time. She does not. There's a window, with cancer people. In most circumstances they pass in a haze of pain meds (mercifully). Usually, once they enter that stage, you cannot reach them again in this earthly life. You don't specify what type of cancer this is, but you do specify that she is terminal. Just write the thing, say what you would like to say. Give the gift, while it can still be received.

If this works for you, you're welcome to it:

This is a very personal thing.

It's your girl's Mom. Think back. Were you nervous meeting her the first time? Did she have a smile just like your girl's? Was she kind to you? Was she wary, but in time you became friends?

I will infer, because you wish to write something for her, that you had at the least a cordial relationship. I don't get the sense that you're doing this for your girlfriend rather than for her mother.

Look back on your memories of her. It doesn't have to be some scholarly work. (If somebody gave me something silly and humorous when I was on the way out, I'd get a huge kick out of that, and I hope they do so.)

Be personal. Don't worry about correct. May the saints or whomever is in charge save us from correct. Write what is fitting for you and for her as you know her.