Funeral Verses and Readings

In response to a demand from many of our families, we have started to build a repository of funeral verses and readings to choose from that will provide you with some inspiration when you are looking for just the right words to say farewell.

Taken from a wide range of resources on this subject, we hope that you will find something here that meets your needs and assists you to express yourself exactly as you want to.

Funeral Planning

Afterglow

I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one
I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done
I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways, of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days,
I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun of happy memories that I leave when my life is done.

One At Rest

Think of me as one at rest for me you should not weep,
I have no pain no troubled thoughts, for I am just asleep,
The living thinking me that was, is now forever still.
And life goes on without me as time forever will.
If your heart is heavy now because I’ve gone away, dwell not long upon it friend for none of us can stay.
Those of you who like me, I sincerely thank you all,
And those of you who love me, I thank you most of all.

Death is nothing at all

Death is nothing at all;
I have only slipped away into the next room.
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.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me and pray for me.
Let my name be the household world that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect,
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was;
There is absolutely unbroken continuity,
Why should I be out of your mind, because I am out of your 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,
Only better, infinitely happier and forever we will be one together..

Do not stand at my grave and weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am the thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on the snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain
I am the gentle Autumn rain
When you awake in the morning hush
I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die.

 

I watched you suffer
I saw you die
But all I could do was sit close by
You went away, we had to part
God eased your pain
But broke my heart
~~
What child is this, who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet
While shepherds watch are keeping
~~
Goodbye my family, my life is past
I loved you all to the very last
Weep not for me, but courage take
Love each other for my sake
For those you love don’t go away
They walk beside you every day
~~
It doesn’t need a special day
To bring you to my mind
For days without a thought of you
Are very hard to find

That Man

When I was born that man was there,
Tall and strong and fair of hair.
He watched my mother give me birth,
As I fought my way onto this Earth.

That man would rock me off to sleep,
Would wipe my tears when I did weep.
He watched me go from crawl to walk,
And smiled with pride when I learned to talk.

That man taught me to ride a bike,
And even how to fly a kite.
He taught me to know wrong from right,
When to run and when to fight.

That man was made of many parts
A teacher of lifes skills and arts
Full of love and full of care
With much to give, and much to share.

As I grew older so did he,
But that man was always there for me
His love, unspoken ,but strong and clear,
Of that I have no doubt or fear.

Time passed, that man grew old and frail,
No longer strong, but weak and pale.
Now I helped him, as he’d helped me
A debt to repay, no charge, no fee.

And now that man has left this life,
No longer parted from his wife
Memories are all that we have left
Of that man who was the best.

Who was that man, you may well ask?
To tell you now is my last task.
It makes me proud, it makes me glad,
To tell you that man, he was my dad.

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