A Father’s Love Lives Forever
You were the quiet strength in every storm,
The steady hands that kept our world together,
A guiding light through every darkened road,
A love we thought would surely last forever.
Your voice still echoes softly in the halls,
Your laughter lingers in the evening air,
And though the world feels emptier today,
Your memory reminds us you are there.
You taught us how to rise when life was hard,
How kindness matters more than wealth or fame,
How honesty can shape a worthy soul,
And how true love is more than just a name.
You worked through weary days without complaint,
Always carrying burdens with such grace,
Yet somehow still you found the time to smile,
To bring warmth and comfort to this place.
The chair you sat in now stands still and silent,
The morning coffee waits untouched alone,
But every corner of our hearts still whispers
That this house will forever be your home.
You were the shelter in our times of fear,
The calm that soothed the chaos deep inside,
A father whose embrace could heal the pain
No matter how hard life or fate would try.
I remember childhood walks beside your hand,
The wisdom hidden in the words you'd say,
The little lessons that seemed small back then
But guide my heart more every passing day.
You believed in dreams before we saw them,
You lifted us when doubt would cloud our sight,
You gave us courage simply by existing,
A constant source of hope, love, and light.
Now heaven holds the man we dearly cherish,
While earth still feels the sadness of goodbye,
Yet love like yours can never truly vanish,
It lives in every tear and every sky.
The sunsets seem more beautiful somehow,
As if your soul now paints the evening gold,
And every gentle breeze that brushes by
Feels like your arms around us in the cold.
Though grief may visit often without warning,
And silence sometimes breaks the strongest heart,
Nothing—not even death—can truly sever
The bond between our souls when we're apart.
For fathers like you leave more than memories,
They leave their love in everything they do,
In every value planted deep within us,
In every dream we still are reaching to.
So rest now, Dad, your journey here is over,
Your work is done, your weary hands may rest,
And though our hearts will ache beyond all measure,
We know that having you made us truly blessed.
We will carry your stories through the years,
Speak your name with pride and endless love,
And one day when the stars shine bright above us,
We’ll meet again somewhere beyond the clouds above.
Until that day, we’ll hold you close in spirit,
In every heartbeat, prayer, and memory,
Because a father’s love is never buried—
It lives forever through eternity.
Happy the Man
by John Dryden
"Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own:
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Be fair or foul or rain or shine
The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour."
Not How Did He Die
by Summer Sandercox
“Not how did he die, but how did he live?
Not what did he gain, but what did he give?
These are the units to measure the worth
Of a man as a man, regardless of birth."
Funeral Blues
W. H. Auden
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
'Do not stand at my grave and weep'
Mary Elizabeth Frye
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.
He Only Takes the Best
God saw that he was getting tired,
A cure was not to be.
So He put His arms around him
and whispered, “Come with Me.”
With tearful eyes, we watched him suffer,
And saw him fade away.
Although we loved him dearly,
We could not make him stay.
A golden heart stopped beating,
Hard working hands to rest.
God broke our hearts to prove to us
He only takes “the best.”
Dad
We’ll always remember
That special smile,
That caring heart,
That warm embrace,
You always gave us.
You being there
For Mom and us
Through good and bad times,
No matter what.
We’ll always remember
You Dad because
They’ll never be another one
To replace you in our hearts,
And the love we will always
Have for you
"Epitaph on a friend"
by Robert Burns
An honest man here lies at rest,
The friend of man, the friend of truth,
The friend of age, the guide of youth;
Few hearts like his, with virtue warm’d,
Few heads with knowledge so inform’d;
If there’s another world, he lives in bliss;
If there is none, he made the best of this.
Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
