“You have two choices. You can give up and let people remember you as someone who gave up, who let life slip through their fingers, someone who didn’t think enough of their friends and family to dig deep and stay around to enjoy life together in the future!

Or you can fight, you can find that inner strength to come through the sense of loss. You can live your life remembering this  poem ….

A Song of Living by Amelia Josephine Burr

Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.
I have sent up my gladness on wings, to be lost in the blue of the sky.
I have run and leaped with the rain, I have taken the wind to my breast.
My cheek like a drowsy child to the face of the earth I have pressed.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

I have kissed young Love on the lips, I have heard his song to the end.
I have struck my hand like a seal in the loyal hand of a friend.
I have known the peace of heave; the comfort of work done well.
I have longed for death in the darkness and risen alive out of hell.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

I give a share of my soul to the world where my course is run.
I know that another shall finish the task I must leave undone.
I know that no flower, nor flint was in vain on the path I trod.
As one looks on a face through a window, through life I have looked on God.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

It is your choice but I want you to know that we will support, help and hug you all the way through the tunnel of grief. We will hold your hand whilst you move from breathing death to breathing life….we love you, we don’t want you to give up….”

We laugh about the harshness of the poem nowadays, but the harshness was needed at the time. I do care about the friends and family around, I can’t change death but I can change life.

Give up? No. Feel down at times? Yes. But never, never give up….

Post from: Widows Quest

When I am gone, release me, let me go.

I have so many things to see and do,
You mustn’t tie yourself to me with too many tears,

But be thankful we had so many good years.

I gave you my love, and you can only guess
How much you’ve given me in happiness.

I thank you for the love that you have shown,
But now it is time I traveled on alone.

So grieve for me a while, if grieve you must
Then let your grief be comforted by trust
That it is only for a while that we must part,
So treasure the memories within your heart.

I won’t be far away for life goes on.

And if you need me, call and I will come.

Though you can’t see or touch me, I will be near
And if you listen with your heart, you’ll hear
All my love around you soft and clear

And then, when you come this way alone,
I’ll greet you with a smile and a “Welcome Home”.

Post from: Widows Quest

You’ve changed.

Your face was joyous

Your skin so vibrant

Now I look and what do I see

A face yes, but I don’t think its me.

Oh mirror stop reflecting

The pain and the grief

Show me the hope

Show me the spirit

So if I look harder then I can see

Someone with the potential of maybe being me.

Reflections on the past

Show in the mirror

Now let the spirit of the future

Reflect the same way

So when I relax and let myself smile – what do I see?

The person that I dream will become the new me.

Reflections from my bathroom this morning put into an Anna poem (which means a badly written one!)….when I saw the old lady staring back at me! But do you know once that smile had been let loose that reflection looked a whole lot different…..try a smile a day, to keep your aging at bay!!

Post from: Widows Quest

I see you when I wake, yet you are not there.

I see you when I close my eyes, yet you are not there.

I see you when I stare at our photo, yet you are not there.

I see you when I try to forget,

Yet I struggle to see you when I try to remember.

Then I look in my heart and I see that you are still there…

Post from: Widows Quest

Fortunately at the end of his life – he died of dementia – we became close and we both managed to say those three little words to each other. Families are strange aren’t they…..now he isn’t he, I miss him soooo very much.

Anyway it will be his birthday on August 12th and I wanted to do something that honours his memory. He loved people, he loved to share, he was the champion for the underdog. So I was thinking that on 12 August I will bring together stories or memorials of other people who have lost people, they loved.

To this end if you want to join in the email me at anna@b5media.com with either

• A story that makes you smile of someone you have lost
• A dedication for someone you loved and lost
• A poem inspired by your grief
• Or a link to an article that you have written about the death or grief over a loved one

So that I have time to pull them together could you get them to me by 10 August 2008. 

Let’s make that day special and show the power of love, the power of sharing and the power of memories…. 

{iStockphoto}

Post from: Widows Quest