Jamil Bermans Iskandar
(1929-2008)

Death is nothing at all   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   That we are still   Call me by my old familiar name   Speak to me in the easy way 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 always 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 effort   Without the ghost of a shadow in it   Life means all that it ever meant   It is the same as it ever was   There is absolute unbroken continuity   What is death but a negligible accident?   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 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!   ( Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul's Cathedral)