He is not dead, he is just away

Today has been a sad day in my community.  A family lost a little boy very suddenly, from natural causes so there is no one to blame or get angry at, just sad sad empty grief.

It is amazing how such a thing, the death of a little boy who I didn't even know can affect me so.  Many parents I'm sure are thinking the same thing, "I can only imagine, it is my worst nightmare.." and it is, truly and as a parent I know it, but I know that no one who hasn't experienced that grief first hand can understand, not even me.

My brother died suddenly at age 12. I was 14.  It was an event that is etched in my memory so crisply that I can recall it down to the details of who sat where, and what they were wearing.  As a child that grief was agonizing, but for my parents it was a million times worse.  I'm sure they cried  when they heard about this boy.  They do everytime someone loses a child, because they know... It is a wound that never heals, you just learn to live with it.

Thinking back today I remembered a poem that came in one of the hundreds of sympathy cards my family got.  This poem by James Whitcomb Riley rang so true to me, and gave me courage to go on. I cut it out when I first read it and for many years it was taped up beside my bed so I could read it at night.

I cannot say and I will not say

That he is dead, he is just away

With a cheery smile, and a wave of the hand,

he has wandered into an unknown land

and left us dreaming how very fair

it needs must be, since he lingers there.

And you-- oh, you, who the wildest yearn

for an old-time step, and the glad return,

think of him faring on, as dear

in the love of there as the love of here.

Think of him still as the same. I say,

he is not dead-- he is just away.

I just wanted to share it for everyone out there who has lost a loved one.  Maybe it will help you through the dark days like it has helped me.