Death… what are you?
Death… what are you?
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 we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, we still are. Call me by my old familiar name. Speak of 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. Play, smile, think of me, and pray for me.
Let my name be the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without effort, without the ghost of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant; it is the same as it ever was; there is absolute and unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well. Nothing lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before—only better; infinitely happier and forever.
