grandpa lightning

My brother's fiance Mallory lost her father to cancer last weekend. To my (almost 2 year old) niece, he was granda lightning - what a wonderful grandfather name. Today is his memorial service in New Orleans, LA. Although I can't be there, I am thinking of Mallory and the entire Taylor family today. I found this poem a while ago and found it comforting - hopefully it will provide some comfort for others.

Death is nothing at 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 that 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.

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 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.

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!

- Henry Scott Holland