Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room. I
am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you
always used. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of
solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we
enjoyed together.
Pray, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household
word that it always was, let it be spoken without effect, without trace
of shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; there
is unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of
sight? I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just
around the corner. All is well
Henry Scott Holland
Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Christina Rossetti