:'( I don't post much here, mostly read. But my grandmother who's lived with me and my wife for the last 5 years, and whom my wife's taken care of, passed quietly this afternoon with me, my wife, and my sister at her bedside, in our home, just like she wanted to go.

Jeff

It is, after all, something positive what you've written here I've found. I think it is a very good thing to leave the physical world with relatives/friends around, loving people, as it was when your grandmother died, which is telling me your post. It is, sorry if this sounds inadaequate, a beautiful thing, "just like she wanted to go". When you've read the posts here you're familiar with the thought of a continueing exisistence after death. So I guess you have mixed feelings, the grief that she left, and a kind of happiness, that a difficult process (dieing, difficult for all involved) has completed and that she might have a good nonphysical life now.

May your tears washed away soon. Maybe by meeting your grandmother in your dreams/thoughts. She may look younger then.

Spooky

May I say that I echo Spooky's sentiments
I am so happy it was a peacefull passing, but understand that it is sometimes still very hard to say goodbye.
Don't know if I have shared this before, but I love it! I am afreaid I don't know who the author is,

Death is just an open door

Death is just an open door
I have only slipped away
Into the next room.

I am I, 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 enjoyed together.

Let my name be ever the household word
That it always was,
Let it be spoken without effect,
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was;
There is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
Because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere near,
Safe and Secure,

All is well.


love to all
Cathy B

Jeff,

Seems like your grandmother had her final wish, which is a very comforting thought for all involved.

Another poem by Henry Scott Holland (as per Cathy) which I like very much:-

Death

I am standing on the seashore.
A ship spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
I stand watching her until she fades on the horizon,
and someone at my side says,
"She is gone."

Gone where?

The loss of sight is in me, not in her.
Just at the moment when someone says,
"She is gone,"
there are others who are watching her coming.
Other voices take up the glad shout,
"Here she comes,"
and that is dying.

roger.

I like tha one Roger!
thankyou
Cathy B

This is wonderful Jeff. I love hearing about peaceful transitions.

Love, Mairlyn ;-)

Jeff, It is so nice that you were all with her. Kathleen.