Untitled excerpt from unknown author

"Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next
room. I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
that we still are. Call me by my
old familiar names, speak to me in the
easy ways you always did.
Put no difference in your tone,
wear no forced air of solemnity or
sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we always
enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me,
pray for me. Let my name be
ever the household word that
it always was, let it e spoken
without effort, without the
trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of sight?
I am waiting for you,
for an interval, somewhere very near,
just around the corner.
All is well."