"Thoughts" from the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice

A bright light from our family is gone
A voice we loved is stilled
A place is vacant in the home that never can be filled
We have to mourn the loss of one
We would have loved to keep
But God who surely loved him best
Has finally let him sleep

For Derek
If tears could build a stairway
And Memories a Lane
I'd walk right up to Heaven
and bring you home again.

love Sallie, Sarah, Emma and James

If heaven is such a nice place
why are people so sad Jennifer (age 6)

What is Heaven like?
It must be very special because
So many people go there.
Ian (aged 10)

Farewell My Friend
It was beautiful as long as it lasted
The journey of my life.
I have no regrets whatsoever
save the pain I'll leave behind.
Those dear hearts who love and care...
And the strings pulling at the heart and soul...
The strong arms that held me up
When my own strength let me down.
At every turning of my life I came across good friends,
Friends who stood by me,
Even when the time raced me by.
Farewell, farewell my friends
I smile and bid you goodbye.
No, shed no tears for I need them not
All I need is your smile.
If you feel sad do think of me
for that's what I'll like when you live in the hearts
of those you love, remember then
you never die.
Rabindranath Tagore

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you wake in the morning hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circling flight,
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there - I do not sleep.
(Unknown)

Peace, my heart, let the time for parting be sweet
Let it not be a death but completeness
Let love melt into memory and pain into song
Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest
Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night
Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment and say your last words in silence
I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light your way
Rabindranath Tagore

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 and unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by the old familiar names. 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 around the corner. All is well.
Canon Henry Scott Holland of St. Paul's Cathedral

If you find these "Thoughts" comforting,
please consider purchasing Beyond The Rainbow from our online store.

It is a beautiful and thought-provoking book containing an anthology of poetry and prose written by patients, carers, staff at the Hospice and more well-known and not so well-known writers. The poems have been compiled by the Hospice's Complementary Therapist Bridget Purser.

All profits from the sale of this book will go to the Hospice.