MIZPAH

Thankyou so much to those people who left a comment following my mum's death.  I have been overwhelmed by people's kindness and thoughtfulness, not just from family and friends but messages and cards from people I hardly know.  It is VERY comforting to know that people genuinely do care.  One blogger sent me a beautiful poem which I shall treasure.  The last few lines are

Be still.

Close your eyes.

Breathe.

Listen for my footfall in your heart.

I am not gone but merely walk within you.

My mum loved poetry, both to read it and write it.  After she died I found Christina Rosetti's poem 'Remember' bookmarked in four of her many poetry books she collected.  My daughter, Rosie, read this at her funeral.

In 2000 Mum had her poem 'Last Wish' published in a book.   We also read this at her funeral.  The Camel estuary is in north Cornwall where she served in the Wrens and she loved so much.  She requested that her ashes be scattered here.

LAST WISH

Lay me down in the Camel river

Where there's a sight of the sea,

And I shall rest

In the waiting west

Where I belong to be.

Let me lie in the Camel river

When the tide is easy and slow, And I shall sleep

In the dreaming deep

When it is time to go.

No mournful songs or sermons,

Only the sound of the sea,

And if larks ascending

Sing at my ending,

There's Heaven enough for me.

We also had Vaughan Williams' 'A Lark Ascending' played at her funeral.

I have titled this post MIZPAH.  Mum often wore a ring with these words on it.  Mizpah is an emotional bond between people who are separated (either physically or by death). Mizpah jewellery is worn to signify this bond, and the word "mizpah" can often be found on headstones in cemeteries and on other memorials. From Genesis 31:49 of the Bible "And Mizpah; for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another."