Death Is Nothing at All

1Death is nothing at all.

2It does not count.

3I have only slipped away into the next room.

4Nothing has happened.

5Everything remains exactly as it was.

6I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.

7Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

8Call me by the old familiar name.

9Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.

10Put no difference into your tone.

11Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

12Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.

13Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.

14Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.

15Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

16Life means all that it ever meant.

17It is the same as it ever was.

18There is absolute and unbroken continuity.

19What is this death but a negligible accident?

20Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

21I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner.

22All is well.

23Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.

24One brief moment and all will be as it was before.

25How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!