It is a unwritten rule I follow – every year I have one post dedicated to my grandfather and it is always just one. I find it really hard to write about him even after all these years. Memories tend to turn into regrets. I am not emotionally strong enough to put my feelings into words. This year I am breaking the rule to add a second post. I posted this on facebook and every time I read it I gain some strength or so it seems. The power of words is truly awesome. I want to share the poem with you. May you find the same comfort I did in these words as you miss the physical presence of a loved one.

What is Death?
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.
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 affect,
without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely 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.
~ Henry Scott Holland