Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.

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

Let my name be the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort.

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 your mind because I am out of your sight?
I am but 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
- only better, infinitely happier and for ever.
Tomorrow we will be one together with our Lord.

In honor of my mother-in-law, Myra Nettleton
who died from cancer June 23 1999.