I'm very sorry indeed to hear your upsetting news WB.
I hope that in the coming months, whatever trials they may bring, both you and your family are able to face things with fortitude, faith and hope.
In dark time such as these the unimportant things of this material life fall into insignificance and the real value of what we really have shines out - faith and love of family.
My most sincere best wishes to you all.
Parable of Immortality
I am standing by the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a peck of white cloud
just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says:
'There she goes!
Gone where?
Gone from my sight - that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side
and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the places of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says:
'There she goes! ',
there are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout:
'Here she comes!'
Henry Van D y k e 1852 - 1933