poem......the next room

This poem was extracted from the eulogies published in Harinder Veriah's website. Hari, as she was fondly known, died at the young age of 33 in 2001. She was a victim of racial discrimination in Hong Kong. She was a Malaysian married to a British nationale with a young son at the time of her death. She was an outstanding wife, mother and friend, as many have testified. Visit her website at http://www.harinderveriah.com/

The Next Room

Canon Henry Scott Holland

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 in your tone

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow

Laugh as we always laughed

At the little jokes we enjoy together

Pray smile, think of me, pray for me

Let my name be ever the household word it always was

Let it be spoken without effect

Without the trace of a shadow upon it

Life means all that it ever was

There is an unbroken continuity

What is death but a negligeble accident ?

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight ?

I am just waiting for you for an interval, somewhere very near

Just around the corner

All is well