Yesterday I heard the rain whispering your name

Asking where you'd gone

It fell softly from the clouds on the silent crowds
As I wandered on
Out of doorways black umbrellas came to pursue me
Faceless people as they passed were looking through me
No one knew me

Yesterday I shut my eyes, face up to the skies
Drinking in the rain
But your image still was there, floating in the air
Brighter than a flame

Yesterday I saw a city
Full of shadows without pity
And I heard the steady rain
Whispering your name
Whispering your name

Yesterday I saw a city
Full of shadows without pity
And I heard the steady rain
Whispering your name
Whispering your name

 

Perhaps love by John Denver

Perhaps love is like a resting place

A shelter from the storm

It exists to give you comfort

It is there to keep you warm

And in those times of trouble

When you are most alone

The memory of love will bring you home

 

Perhaps love is like a window

Perhaps an open door

It invites you to come closer

It wants to show you more

And even if you lose yourself

and don't know what to do

The memory of love will see you thru

 

O love to some is like a cloud

To some as strong as steel

For some a way of living

For some a way to feel

And some say love is holding on

And some say letting go

And some say love is everything

Some say they don't know

 

Perhaps love is like the ocean

Full of conflict full of pain

Like a fire when it's cold outside

A thunder when it rains

If I should live forever

And all my dreams come true

My memories of love will be of you

 

And some say love is holding on

And some say letting go

And some say love is everything

Some say they don't know

 

Perhaps love is like the ocean

Full of conflict full of pain

Like a fire when it's cold outside

A thunder when it rains

If I should live forever

And all my dreams come true

My memories of love will be of you

Love each other- Time is brief.

From Cendrillon by Massenet

The Land of the Leal

I'm wearin' awa', Jean
Like snaw-wreaths in thaw, Jean
I'm wearin' awa'
To the land o' the leal

There 's nae sorrow there, Jean
There 's neither cauld nor care, Jean
The day is aye fair
In the land o' the leal

Ye, aye,were leal and true, Jean
Yer task is ended noo, Jean
And I'll welcome you, Tae the lan' o'the Leal

Our bonnie bairn 's there, Jean
She was baith gude and fair, Jean;
And O! we grudged her sair
To the land o' the leal

SO, dry that tearfull e'e, Jean!
My saul langs to be free, Jean
And angels wait on me
To the land o' the leal

Now fare-ye-weel, my ain Jean
This warld's cares are vain, Jean
We'll meet, and we'll be fain
In the land o' the leal

I'm wearin' awa', Jean
Like snaw-wreaths in thaw, Jean
I'm wearin' awa'
To the land o' the leal

There 's nae sorrow there, Jean
There 's neither cauld nor care, Jean
The day is aye fair
In the land o' the leal

Keanu Reeves on The Late Show.

Colbert: What happens when we die?
Reeves:  I know that the ones that love us will miss us.

John and I met Arnold in a wax museum in Amsterdam

John and Mike in their teens

Harry at 16.

I am sad to report that Harry died today at about noon.

 

Rainbow Bridge

 

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge

 

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.  There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.  There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

 

All the animals that had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor.  Those who were hurt and maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.  The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

 

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance.  His bright eyes are intent.  His eager body quivers.  Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass his legs carrying him faster and faster.

 

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again.  The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart. 

 

Then you cross rainbow bridge together...

 

Author unknown

Funeral Blues by Auden

Funeral Blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

 

Happy Valentines Day John.

Merry Christmas John

Birthday Wishes.

Happy 58th birthday, John.  Buon Compleanno.  June 5, 1959    Had coconut cake, but sorry, not your favorite....cheap white grocery store cake with strawberries on top.  Love you in spite of that!

 

John and Harry in our trailer in Truro.  Right cake but no strawberries.

John has been gone for three years now.  Harry is getting old and it seems that it will not be long before he joins John in his urn, as John wished. We are in a new home where the culture is so different from where John, Harry and I spent our lives together, and with everything being so different, it makes the time without John that much harder.  John, of course would have hated this new existence.  Sponge baths instead of hot showers, miles from a big cultural center.  Lots of work on the house that needs to be done.  Nothing is finished.  Well, in time it will all settle down, but I remember why we did not do a lot of camping out and travel to the big parks in the US.  He was going nowhere that there was not a big bathtub! 
The land here is very fertile.  It lends itself to beautiful gardens, which is what I am working on. That is something I can accomplish without a lot of money.  So, it is all very satisfying to accomplish something at least.  And it is fun to think each night when Harry is sleeping in a chair and I am bathing in a Pitcher and Bowl that John is up there thinking just how glad he is not to have to do that!
I would give anything John, if you were here to complain, because even in complaining, you were great to have around, especially when you could be placated by a nice big pan of Italian food.  I guess you would be happy after all...I do a lot of pizza and spaghetti here.

 

 

To live in hearts we leave/ is not to die.

Thomas Campbell

A STRANGE STORY FOR OUR SECOND ANNIVERSARY

This story did not make a complete circle till I related the first part to John's sister Sally Kelley.
I did not remember doing this at all, but I guess that in my grief, on the night he died, I went outside and picked a last little sprig of Bleeding Heart, and put it in John's hand.

About a year after John died, I had put the left over ashes from Sally's reserve into the sand at Provincetown.

I had sealed one of John's little boxes with a small amount of ashes and we buried them in the family burial plot.

So there was a tiny bit of ash left over, when I visited my sister in Maine.  We put it into her garden at the base of her Bleeding Heart plant.

Today was OK for me, but I kept myself very busy so far.  A little Italian beef stew, still to get the potatoes, and working on the tiny house in the yard to keep occupied  It worked.

Then I returned a call from my sister.  She did not remember that it was our second anniversary today.  She just related what was going on today.  She said that her Bleeding Heart plant was doing its normal thing.  This time of year they turn yellow, and slowly die down to the ground till next year.  She said that as this one yellowed, every branch had sprouted a tiny Bleeding Heart plant between the divisions in the branches.  And on each one were tiny Bleeding Heart blossoms.  Something neither of us had ever heard of before.

Thanks John...Happy Anniversary to you too. 

I Do

"Death is just another path, one that we all must take." — J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

From: Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell

And I need you more than want you,
And I want you for all time...

One year today.  I miss you John.

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to 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 into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes 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 effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute 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 past; 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!                            

Henry Scott Holland