In Honor of Angie

Beautiful Angie

Angie's Parents, Nick and Sharon

We have been  driving through Denali today, and out of internet service range. I am seizing this quick moment to share this post in honor of my dear friend Sharon, who is also a bereaved mom. Sharon and I met two years ago via very dear mutual friends in Maui. Their daughter, Angie, went to Heaven a month after Joey, and we have shared the trials and tribulations of grief through literally hundreds of emails.

Thinking of her today, I found this poem by Christina Rosetti. When she says "death is nothing at all", I believe there is a certain irony in the phrase. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The death of a child is earth-shattering. Nonetheless, the poem talks about transcending that pain by holding on to some powerful truth.  I find it very reassuring and I pray it comforts you, dear Sharon. I love you and thank God for the gift of our friendship.

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 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

somewhere very near

just around the corner.

All is well

Christina Georgina Rossetti 1830 - 1894