Funeral Poem

[icecreamgirl]

A friend died last week, it's her funeral tomorrow and my sister is going to read this poem at the funeral.
She found it on the internet and i've since found out it was read at the Queen Mothers funeral.
Someone said today they think it's about a ship?
Does anyone else know anything about it?
Also any tips for sis to get through it would be good.


She is Gone
By Anonymous
You can shed tears that she is gone
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her and only that she's gone
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on. You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
or you can do what she'd want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

[Seahorse]

Sorry cant help you but I am choking back the tears!What a beautiful poem.

[EMEvans]

Sorry i can't help either.

This one will get your eyes moist too, think it's a lovely poem - but very sad:

God looked around his garden
And He found an empty place.
And then He looked down upon the earth,
And saw your tired face.
He put His arms around you,
And lifted you to rest.
God's garden must be beautiful,
He always takes the best.
He knew that you were suffering,
He knew you were in pain,
He knew that you would never
Get well on earth again.
He saw the road was getting rough,
And the hills were hard to climb,
So He closed your weary eyelids,
And whispered"Peace be thine."
It broke our hearts to lose you
. But you didn't go alone,
For part of us went with you,
The day God called you home

[Heidijw]

that was read at my mom's funeral - I'm afraid I don't know its origin, its just marked "anon" on the copy I have from the vicar.

The only way I can read at a funeral is to do a lot of deep breathing leading up to it, almost distance myself for that time and then go to bits afterwards.

I read this at my grandfathers funeral - also used at my mom's -

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 into your tone,
wear no forced air of sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Pray, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name ever be the household word that it always was
Let it be spoken without effect, without the shadow of a ghost in it.
Life means all it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity.
What is 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.

[icecreamgirl]

Okay...
So now i'm blubbing....

[Funkyhand]

So am I...
Anice xx

[Sommerwood]

A friend died last week, it's her funeral tomorrow and my sister is going to read this poem at the funeral.
She found it on the internet and i've since found out it was read at the Queen Mothers funeral.
Someone said today they think it's about a ship?
Does anyone else know anything about it?
Also any tips for sis to get through it would be good.


She is Gone
By Anonymous
You can shed tears that she is gone
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her and only that she's gone
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on. You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
or you can do what she'd want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

I'm afraid I don't know who it is by either but it was read at my sisters funeral and is so beautiful, as are the others. And yep, now I;m blubbing too!!!

[Sommerwood]

Here's a link to tell you more about it, apparently wasn't written as a funeral poem!!

http://www.poeticexpressions.co.uk/POEMS/You%20can%20shed%20tears%20that%20she%20is%20gone.htm

[colourart]

Poems say so much, don't they. Nothing else needs to be said when its written so beautifully in a poem.

[Sommerwood]

Leading up to my sisters death (she died from a brain tumour 11 years ago aged 26) I had written loads and loads of peoms about her as a way of dealing with it all and letting all my feelings out, and we made them all into a little booklet and handed them out at her funeral, and I write her one every year when it is the anniversary of her death. It really helps me and my family always love them too.

[Tip Top]

that was read at my mom's funeral - I'm afraid I don't know its origin, its just marked "anon" on the copy I have from the vicar.

The only way I can read at a funeral is to do a lot of deep breathing leading up to it, almost distance myself for that time and then go to bits afterwards.

I read this at my grandfathers funeral - also used at my mom's -

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 into your tone,
wear no forced air of sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Pray, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name ever be the household word that it always was
Let it be spoken without effect, without the shadow of a ghost in it.
Life means all it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity.
What is 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.

A good friend died in 1992 and he was only 21 and that verse was printed onto little cards that his mum gave out in the weeks after the funeral. I was really touched that I got one as we really were only drinking buddies but got on really well. I specially made a vase for his grave in the afternoon following his funeral and I can remember crying my eyes out at the wheel whilst I was turning it. He was the first body I ever saw.

[icecreamgirl]

A friend died last week, it's her funeral tomorrow and my sister is going to read this poem at the funeral.
She found it on the internet and i've since found out it was read at the Queen Mothers funeral.
Someone said today they think it's about a ship?
Does anyone else know anything about it?
Also any tips for sis to get through it would be good.


She is Gone
By Anonymous
You can shed tears that she is gone
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her and only that she's gone
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on. You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
or you can do what she'd want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

Well she did it, how i don't know, but good for her.
I kept it together for her as i was under strict instructions not to cry otherwise she wouldn't be able to go through with it, but as soon as she got up to go and read I blubbed. I hid behind the person in front of me so she couldn't see me crying!!!
It was a nice service, the family are Catholic so people did wear black, but they had all really made the effort to 'dress up' as it were and there were a lot of little black dresses, so i think it made a good looking congegation!!
The sun is shining here and i've got in from her garden where we all sat and had some 'alcoholic beverages' (you could tell they were northeners the trays of straight whisky and vodka were doing the rounds!! Haha!!
Her family are taking her ashes home and getting a ferry on the mersey to scatter them on Sunday, hope the sun shines for them.