Death is nothing at all (poem)

[xxhunnyxx]

Hi all,

My friend died 2 weeks ago (aged 27) it was very sudden and a total shock to everybody. It was his funeral on Friday and they read a poem which I think is lovely and it's really helped me so I thought I'd just share it with you all.....

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 shared together.
Let my name ever be
the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect,
without the trace of a 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.

This is a real favourite of mine too. So sorry about your loss.

Sorry to hear of your loss.

We were given a bereavement card from the nuns of the church my parents attended when we lost our mum 15yrs ago. I still have it. Lovely words and so true. It was read at her funeral too.

am so sorry you've lost your friend

I too took a lot of comfort from that poem when I lost my mum in July. I had desperately wanted to read it at her funeral but being 40wks pregnant didn't think I was up to it and we had it printed on her order of service

am glad we did as I now have it as a constant reminder to look back at and it does bring me some sense of peace

I hope you find this too

Thanks, I wasn't looking for sympathy tho, just wanted to share the poem.

Now that the funeral is out of the way things are getting easier. Things should be better on Friday because at the moment his face is on the front page of our local paper so every time we go to get petrol or nip in a local shop his face is there on the shop counter, there's no getting away from it.
The new paper comes out on Friday so should be easier to move on a little then.
I'm currently 16 weeks pregnant so we've decided if it's a boy we're going to give baby his name as a middle name.

nobody on here thought you were looking for sympathy at all

I think thats a lovely idea for the middle name, am sure he would have been chuffed to bits and if a boy your DS will have a lovely mening behind his name

I read it at my Mum's funeral nearly a year ago. It is so lovely, as I really do believe she is just around the corner waiting for me. My dad died 7 weeks after my mum, so the next 8 weeks (Mum's first anniversary on Saturday) are going to be hard. But they are still around - we talk about them a lot and I feel they are still with me.

That's a lovely poem, I've heard it before but didn't have a copy and I'm so pleased to have been able to read it again.
(Do you know who wrote the poem?)

Dad's funeral is next week and we are having this poem on the back cover of his Order of Service. Thank you for putting it on here.

I am so sorry that so many people have needed to use it, but so glad that it brought comfort.

Written by Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul's Cathedral.

Ending is actually :

"Nothing is past; nothing is lost

One brief moment and all will be as it was before

How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again! "

Though I can understand why you might leave the last bit out.

Sympathies with everyone who has lost someone dear!

Thanks Portofino