There comes a day when you have to let go and say good-bye, and yesterday was one of those days. RIP my dear friend, Ed Maddox. Cancer won the battle, but you won our hearts.
After Dad died Ed sent me the following poem, and I love the ending, “All is well.”
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 which 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,
Pray, 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 in it,
Life means all that it ever meant,
It is the same 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 somewhere very near,
Just around the corner,
All is well.”
~ author unknown