I’m not sure how it ever started, but I have collected charming obituary notices, sentimental sympathy cards, and quotes of sympathy in a folder on my desk. Every so often when I’m looking for something else, or cleaning my desk I come across the folder and spend some time going through it. I decided to share some of my favorites here in hopes that they will touch your heart, or even comfort you—

I have always admired Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She had such style, but more importantly such grace and incredible dignity. At her funeral her dear companion Maurice Tempelsman read one of Jacqueline’s favorite poems. Even today it is exactly perfect.

Ithaka
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician
trading stations to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral,
amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor,
Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become,
so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what
these Ithakas mean.

~CP Cavafy


Favorite Quotes

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.
~ From a headstone in Ireland

To live in hearts we leave behind
is not to die.
~Thomas Campbell, "Hallowed Ground"

Unable are the loved to die.  For love is immortality. 
~Emily Dickinson

Perhaps they are not the stars, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy.
~Author Unknown


Next to love, sympathy is the divinest passion of the human heart.
~Edmund Burke


Sympathy is two hearts tugging at one load.
~Charles Henry Parkhurst


People living deeply have no fear of death.
~Anais Nin


Friends are the pillars on your porch. Sometimes they hold you up, sometimes they lean on you, and sometimes it's just enough to know that they are standing by."
~Anonymous


Don’t be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.
~Richard Bach


What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
~Richard Bach

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say,
"I used everything you gave me.”
~Erma Bombeck


I am ready to meet my maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
~Winston Churchill