Good-bye, My Fancy!

Funeral or memorial poem by American writer Walt Whitman, ideal for a religious or non-religious funeral service.

Good-bye my Fancy!
Farewell dear mate, dear love!
I‘m going away, I know not where,
Or to what fortune, or whether I may ever see you again,
So Good-bye my Fancy.
Now for my last – let me look back a moment;
The slower fainter ticking of the clock is in me,
Exit, nightfall, and soon the heart-thud stopping.
Long have we lived, joy‘d, carress‘d together;
Delightful! – now separation – Good-bye my Fancy.
Yet let me not be too hasty,
Long indeed have we lived, slept, filter‘d, become really blended into one;
Then if we die we die together, (Yes, we‘ll remain one,)
If we go anywhere we‘ll go together to meet what happens,
May-be we‘ll be better off and blither, and learn something,
May-be it is yourself now really ushering me to the true songs, (who knows?)
May-be it is you the mortal knob really undoing, turning – so now finally,
Good-bye – and hail! my Fancy.

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After the service

Ways to keep them close

Words like these often stay with us long after the funeral. Some families also find comfort in a keepsake at home: an urn, a cuddle stone to hold, or jewellery with a little of their ashes inside.

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