The next room

"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.

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was,

Let it be spoken without effect,

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 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 1847-1918 Canon of St Pauls Cathedral

Mike Harris