Angus McMaster

In Sympathy

So sorry for your loss. My nan passed away last year and it feels like my whole world has been taken away. My thoughts are with you. God bless. I hope you find this poem of comfort, as I have done. x

What is Dying?

A ship sails and I stand watching till she fades on the horizon and someone at my side says 'She is gone'.

Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large now as when I last saw her. Her diminished size and total loss from my sight is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says she is gone there are others who are watching her coming over their horizon and other voices take up a glad shout 'There she comes!'

That is what dying is. An horizon and just the limit of our sight.

Lift us up, Oh Lord, that we may see further.

Mel Xxxxx (Passer-by)

August 4, 2008

I lost my Grandad in 2002 and know how it feels. I was given a poem by a family member and it gave me some comfort, I hope it does the same for you.

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
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 effort,
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 absolutely unbroken continuity.


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.

Charlotte McCluskey (someone who knows)

February 29, 2008