What is Death?

By

Henry Scott Holland

Death is nothing at all.  It does not count.  I have only slipped away into the next room.  Nothing has happened.  Everything remains exactly as it was.  I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.  Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.  Call me by the old familiar name.  Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.  Put no difference into your tone.  Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow,  Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.  Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.  Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.  Life means all that it ever meant.  It is the same as it ever was.  There is absolute and unbroken continuity.  What is the death but a negligible accident?  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.  Nothing is hurt, nothing is lost.  One brief moment and all will be as it was before.  How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

Read by Cantor Claire Franco at the funeral of Jo-Ann Koons.