An Irish Funeral Prayer
Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Everything remains as it was.
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 sorrow in your tone.
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 effort.
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 but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around 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.
(I found this but I don't have a citation. I think it speaks volumes and not just about Tim Russert.)
Labels: Tim Russert's death has really hit me hard; did you see Luke on the Today Show
posted by teachergirl at 5:28 PM
6 Comments:
Lovely.
And you know that I have set the DVR to record his memorial. I've cried through Meet the Press and Luke on The Today Show (that picture of him by his father's chair gutted me). I'll cry more. I'll also make sure to follow Tom Brokaw's wish that we raise a cold one to Brother Timmy.
I had to try twice to get through Meet the Press. And when I saw that still photo of James Carville and Mary Matalin crying on the set of Meet the Press, (and watching them holding hands), I really came undone. So, I've got to find a cold one for tomorrow and Wednesday - what a week. (And this stupid class I'm taking is getting in my way.)
I've missed both Meet the Press and the Today show in favor of cartoons and cooking shows and just plain being dumb and not realizing it'd be on. That sucks.
The Irish Funeral Prayer spoke to me on a different level, as I'm fresh off realizing one of my favorite (Irish) people has been gone a year earlier this month. Thanks for posting it and making me cry a good cry. :)
Russert was a class act. Don't know what we'll do on election nite without the dry-erase board. Russert had integrity, & was honest as the day is long. The photo of Luke holding on to his dad's MTP anchor chair is so touching!
Thanks.
-J.
Source: derived from a sermon written by Henry Scott Holland and delivered in St. Paul's (London) on 15 May 1910, at which time the body of King Edward VII was lying in state at Westminster. Although not originally derived from Irish writings, versions of this sermon have been used at many Irish and Catholic funerals over the years.
Post a Comment
<< Home