I am standing upon that foreshore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength
and I stand and watch her until at length she hangs
like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky
come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, “There! She’s gone!”
“Gone where?” “Gone from my sight, that’s all”,
she is just as large in mast and spar and hull
as ever she was when she left my side;
just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the place of her destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at that moment when someone at my side says,
“There! She’s gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout,
“Here she comes!” And that is dying.

Bishop Brent

We speak your name
with love and pride.
We smile through tears
we try to hide.
Thank you Mum/Dad for
the time we shared.
The love you gave
and the way you cared.
You left a place
no one can fill.
We miss you Mum/Dad
and always will.

Death is nothing at all –
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name,
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Laugh as we always laughed
At the little jokes we always enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort.
Life means all that it ever meant,
It is the same as it ever was;
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of your mind,
Because I am out of your sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval,
Somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well.
Nothing is past; nothing is lost;
One brief moment and all will be as it was before –
Only better, infinitely happier and forever –
We will all be one together.

Henry Scott-Holland (1847-1918)
Canon of St Paul's Cathedral, London

When I am gone, release me, let me go.
I have so many things to see and do.
You must not tie yourself to me with tears,
Be happy we had so many years.

I gave you my love, you can only guess,
How much you gave me in happiness.
I thank you for the love you have each shown,
But now it is time I travelled on alone.

So grieve a while for me, if grieve you must,
Then let your grief be comforted by trust.
It is only for a while that we must part,
So bless the memories within your heart.

I will not be far away, for life goes on,
So if you need me, call and I will come.
And if you listen with your heart, you will hear,
All of my love around you soft and clear.

Then, when you must come this way alone,
I will greet you with a smile
and a “Welcome Home”.

To mourn too long for those we love
is self indulgent…
But to honour their memory
with a promise to live a little better
for having known them
gives purpose to their life…
and some reason for their death.

The tide recedes but it leaves behind
bright seashells on the sand.
The sun goes down but gentle warmth
still lingers on the land.
The music stops, yet somehow
continues in sweet refrain.
For every joy that passes,
something beautiful remains.

Martha Vashti Pearson

They shall grow not old,
as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them,
nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun,
and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

Not how did he die, but how did he live.
Not what did he gain, but what did he give.
These are the units, to measure the worth,
of a man, as a man, regardless of birth.
Not what was his station, but had he a heart
And how did he play his God given part,
Was he ever ready with a word of good cheer,
to bring back a smile, to banish a tear.
Not what was his church nor what was his creed,
but had he defended those really in need.
Not what did the sketch in the newspapers say,
but how many were sorry that he’d passed away.

The clock of life is wound but once
And no-one has the power
To say just when the hands will stop,
The year, the day, the hour.

To lose your wealth is bad enough,
To lose your health is more,
To lose your soul a tragedy
That no one can restore.

Today alone you call your own,
To do with as you will,
Don't count upon tomorrow friends,
The hands may then be still.

We little knew that morning
That God was going to call your name.
In life we loved you dearly;
In death we do the same.

It broke our hearts to lose you,
You did not go alone.
For part of us went with you,
The day God called you home.

You left us peaceful memories,
Your love is still our guide,
And though we cannot see you,
You are always at our side.

Our family chain is broken,
And nothing seems the same,
But as God calls us one by one
The chain will link again.

I have passed a mountain peak and
my soul is soaring in the firmament
of complete and unbound freedom.
I am far, far away; my companions and the clouds
are hiding the hills from my eyes.
The valleys are becoming flooded with an
ocean of silence, and the hands of oblivion
are engulfing the roads and the houses;
The prairies and fields are disappearing
behind a white spectre that looks like
the spring cloud, yellow as the candlelight
and red as the twilight.
The songs of the waves and the hymns of the streams
are scattered,
and the voices of the throngs reduced to silence.
And I can hear naught, but the music of eternity
in exact harmony with the spirits’ desires.
I am cloaked in full whiteness;
I am in comfort; I am in peace.

Kahlil Gibran

That man is a success
who has lived well,
laughed often and loved much;
who has gained the respect
of intelligent men
and the love of children;
who has filled his niche
and accomplished his task;
who leaves the world better
than he found it;
who has never lacked appreciation
of earth’s beauty
or failed to express it;
who looked for the best in others
and gave the best he had.

When we count our many blessings
it isn’t hard to see,
that life’s most valued treasures
are the treasures that are free.
For it isn’t what we own or buy
that signifies our wealth,
it’s the special gifts that have no price …
Our family, friends and health.

Think of me as one at rest, for me you should not weep,
I have no pain, no troubled thoughts for I am just asleep.
The living, thinking, me that was, is now forever still.
And life goes on without me, as time forever will.

If your heart is heavy now, because I’ve gone away,
dwell not long upon it friend, for none of us can stay.
Those of you who liked me, I sincerely thank you all,
and those of you who loved me, I thank you most of all.

The answer to life’s riddle, in life I never knew,
I go with hope that now I will, and even so will you.
Oh, foolish, foolish me that was, I who was so small,
To have wondered, even worried at the mystery of it all.

And in my fleeting life span, as time went rushing by,
I found some time to hesitate, to laugh, to love, to cry.
Matters it now if time began, if time will ever cease?
I was here, I used it all, and now I am at peace.

Think of me as one at rest
for me you should not weep,
I have no pain no troubled thoughts
for I am just asleep.
The living thinking me that was,
is now forever still.
And life goes on without me
as time forever will.
If your heart is heavy now
because I’ve gone away,
dwell not long upon it friend
for none of us can stay.
Those of you who liked me
I sincerely thank you all,
and those of you who loved me
I thank you most of all.