UNALTRA VITA
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.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon 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
round 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!
Henry Scott-Holland