Dealing with the death of a loved one is one of the heaviest burdens we are ever asked to bear.

A few years ago I was in Coach John Wooden's home when he received a call from a friend who had just lost his wife. Coach, who was then 94, recited from memory a poem that had comforted him when his beloved wife Nell passed away. It's called "Miss Me, But Let Me Go" (author unknown).

When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me,
I want no rites in a gloom-filled room
-- Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little, but not too long.
And not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared.
-- Miss me, but let me go.

For this is a journey we all must take,
And each must go alone.
It's all a part of the Master's plan,
-- A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick of heart,
Go to friends we know
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds.
-- Miss me, but let me go!

Another positive perspective is expressed in a poem titled "All Is Well" by Henry Scott Holland:

Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.

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 as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,
Just round the corner.

All is well.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.