Death is nothing
at all.
It does not count.
I have only
slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has
happened.
Everything remains
exactly as it was.
I am I, and you
are you,
and the old life
that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were
to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old
familiar name.
Speak of me in the
easy way which you always used.
Put no difference
into your tone.
Wear no forced air
of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always
laughed at the little jokes that 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 an effort, without the ghost of a shadow
upon it.
Life means all
that it ever meant.
It is the same as
it ever was.
There is absolute
and unbroken continuity.
What is this death
by 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 round the
corner.
All is well.
Nothing is hurt;
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!
--Henry
Scott-Holland (1847-1918)
During the month of November, we remember All Souls...
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