One of my best friends, Debbie, died late last year. She was a very good person and a great friend. Debbie and I met in the 1980's when she was just going through a divorce and recovering from a transplant operation.
She had suffered brittle diabetes all through her life from the time she was about 12 years old. Gradually, it undermined her health until, in her early 60's. she died from the effects of influenza. At the time of her death, she had been blind for several years; a result of the diabetes.
She was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I miss her and her prayers and her exemplary devotion to the Savior.
This is one of her favorite poems:
A Psalm of Life
BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
I am so sorry to read of the death of your friend, who had fought a long battle so bravely. I lost my best friend (for 59 years) last November and am still trying to come to terms with the fact we shall never meet again in this world.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Bovey. I think about her often but am so glad she is now comfortable and whole. She bore her earthly difficulties very beautifully but there were times when it was all too much.
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