You can shed a tear that they have gone
Or you can smile because they’ve lived
You can close your eyes and pray they’ll come back
Or open your eyes and see all they have left
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see them
Or you can be full of the love you shared
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live for yesterday
Or be happy because of yesterday
You can remember them only that they have gone
Or you can cherish their memory and live on
You can cry close your mind, be empty and turn back
Or you can do what they’d want
Smile, open your eyes, love and go on
Miss Me but Let Me Go
When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me
I want no tears in a gloom-filled room
Why cry for a soul set free?
Miss me a little- but not for long
And not with your head bowed low
Remember the love we once shared
Miss me- but let me go
For this is a journey we all must take
And each must go alone
It’s all a part of the Master’s plan
A step on the road to home
They are not dead,
Who leave us this great heritage of remembering joy.
They still live in our hearts,
In the happiness we knew, in the dreams we shared.
They still breathe,
In the lingering fragrance, windblown, from their favourite flowers.
They still smile in the moonlight’s silver,
And laugh in the sunlight’s sparking gold.
They still speak in the echoes of the words we’ve heard them say again and again.
They still move,
In the rhythm of waving grasses, in the dance of the tossing branches.
They are not dead;
Their memory is warm in our hearts, comfort in our sorrow.
They are not apart from us, but part of us,
For love is eternal,
And those we love shall be with us throughout all eternity.
Anon
Life Goes On
If I should go before the rest of you
Break not a flower
Nor inscribe a stone
Nor when I am gone
Speak in a Sunday voice
But be the usual selves
That I have known
Weep if you must
Parting is hell
But life goes on
So …. sing as well
Joyce Grenfell
1910-1979
But Not Forgotten
I think no matter where you stray,
That I shall go with you a way.
Though you may wander sweeter lands,
You will not forget my hands,
Nor yet the way I held my head
Nor the tremulous things I said.
You will still see me, small and white
And smiling, in the secret night,
And feel my arms about you when
The day comes fluttering back again.
I think, no matter where you be,
You’ll hold me in your memory
And keep my image there without me,
By telling later loves about me.
Dorothy Parker
I think of you often
and make no outward show,
But what it means to lose you,
no one will ever know
You wished no one farewell,
not even said good-bye,
You were gone before I knew it,
and only God knows why.
You are not forgotten
nor will you ever be,
As long as life and memories last,
I will remember thee.
