What is dying?
I am standing on the seashore.
A ship sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the ocean.
She is an object
and I stand watching her
Till at last she fades from the horizon,
And someone at my side says,
“She is gone!” Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all;
She is just as large in the masts,
hull and spars
as she was when I saw her,
And just as able to bear her load
of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size and total loss
of sight is in me, not in her;
And just at the moment when someone
at my side says, “She is gone”,
There are others who are watching her coming,
And other voices take up a glad shout,
“There she comes” – and that is dying.
by Luther F. Beecher
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.vancouvercrematorium.com for the Craig family.