Death is nothing at all

Shared by my mom's good friend Georgeen Newell. I don't believe my mom ever read it, but am certain it would be as meaningful to her as it is to me.

“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 are still. 

Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way   

which you always used to.   

Put no difference into your tone; wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.  

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.   

Play, 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 the ghost of a shadow on it.   

Life means all that it ever meant.  It is the same as it ever was; there is   

absolutely unbroken continuity.   

What is this death but a negligible accident?   Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?   

I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just  around the corner . . . All is well.” 

By Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918)