From the bottom of my heart, I want to apologize for all the pain and grief that I have caused your beloved son to re-experience. My twenty-one years on this earth has been nothing but lies, pain and hurting others. I promise that I would be different, that I would be a role model to others.That where ever I go I would be a representation of love, generosity, and honesty. Yet day in and day out I found myself doing the opposite, I’m constantly in strife with my inner self. I’ve broken every last one of your commandment on every single day of my life. Even after all my wrong doing, you allow me to wake up in the morning and go throughout the day peacefully. Forgive me for my wrong doings, for my stubbornness, my spiteful heart. For all the
I, of course, knew my mother as a mother. As I have reached adulthood and become a mother myself, I have also known her as a friend. My mom shared much of herself with me, and I saw sides of my mother as she struggled with her cancer that I had never seen before, especially her strong belief in positive thinking and the importance of quality of life. I was privileged to know so many facets of my mother, but certainly I did not know all. There were parts of her life that I didn’t see, relationships that I didn’t know about. Last night, at the wake, so many stories were told to me about my mom’s strength, courage, humor, kindness, her quietness, her loyalty as a friend. It was so special to hear of these things that my mom said and did, to know some of these other parts of her life. I hope that her friends and family will continue to share these stories with me and with each other so we can continue to know and remember my mom.
“I was so so sorry, deep in my heart I was sorry, but all your “sorrys” are gone when a person dies. She was gone. Gone. That’s why you have to say all your “sorrys” and “I love yous” while a person is living, because tomorrow isn’t promised.”
Perhaps some people’s first impression on Mona Van Duyn’s “Letters from a Father” is that its topic a cliché; since poems about death are not rare at all. However, Van Duyn’s unique interpretations and attitude towards her writing style, which are apart from other poets, shall also be discovered if one dwells on her poem. In the poem “Letters from a father”, it mainly portrays the daily life of a father, a mother and those feeders (birds). Throughout the poem, it may seem that it emphasizes the process of characters’ acceptance of birds and understanding on their daughter. Nevertheless, if we look deeper into the change in tones, repetitions and words use developed in the poem, it is arguable that the parent’s changes in acceptance of birds are in fact implying a mental process of bestirring from illnesses, which is most readers do not see. This is believed as an important interpretation since it reveals the poet’s attitude towards death, which underlie beneath the literal meaning of the poem.
I, face worker, wronged male, kicked male, confess to God the fencer and neither to sonnet Mary, and to the well found Saint Michael garlic and to the well found saint Sanchez fine fabric, and to the apostate sonnets Saint Dog and Saint Club, and to you father of experience, give me guilt, take guilt. I confess again to all those that remain behind, and to you father of experience, who are in place of God. Give pestilence of my fishes and suck from them, amen Jesus.
...very touching with a lot of strong emotion behind the words "I share with you the agony of your grief... the strength of caring, the warmth of one who seeks to understand the silent storm swept barrenness of so great a loss.
I would like to thank all of you for coming here today to help us, as a family, to heal, and to celebrate my mother’s life.
I'd like to thank you all for the outpouring of support and condolences on the loss of my beautiful son Adam. My entire family appreciates it. This is my eulogy to Adam:
I am writing this to you on the anniversary of my father's passing, out of a deep concern for your future. My desire is that, by reading this, you may avoid some of the pain that my generation has experienced. Many things have come and gone in my lifetime, for God has granted me a long 60 years. I wish to tell you all that I have experienced, before I too pass on, that you may learn from the mistakes of the past, and that our losses may not be in vain.
First, I apologize for putting you in this position. I'm hopeful that this email may give some peace to you. I've realized that so very little of my behaviour in my life has been for others. As an addict, I was self-centred to the extreme. Realizing this, I am trying to take any opportunity I can to live in truth and to think of other's first.
I can’t begin to express how hard it is for me to stand here before you and give my last respects to my loving mother - name here. From the biography that was handed out you can recall that during the her early years in the united states she studied and worked in New York where she met and married my dad, the love of her life. They spent the rest of their days loyal and in love with one another. Unfortunately, one day my father passed away with cancer at a young age. My dad was the one who suffered the most, but my mom suffered right along with him. She felt powerless, and for my mom- powerlessness turned in to guilt and grief, a painful distress she lived with on a daily basis for the next six years. When he died part of her died! Life for her was never the same again. I was not able to completely understand her loss- until now…
It’s hard to imagine how I’m going to go a day without speaking to him, because he’d call me every single day. I know he was a very busy man, but he would never forget to take the time to call me to see how I was. It’s the little things like that I’ll never forget about him. Although William’s death was sudden and came as a shock to all of us, I know in my heart he would not want us to spend forever grieving. Rather, William wants us all to remember our favorite moments we spent with him.
Let us pray, poor sinner: let us fall on our knees again, and pray to the God of all mercy.
And because of this devastation, I do not wish this pain even to my enemies. I have felt the pain of the loss of a Sister; have felt the pain of the death of my Mother, and felt the death of my Father. I know how it feels. I experienced it. It is painful, looking at those old kind folks who bore you; who took care of you; went through all kinds of sacrifices and pains just to look after you for years and years, until one day the child stood on one’s own two feet, and then.
Before I begin I would like to thank all of you here on behalf of my mother, my brother and myself, for your efforts large and small to be here today, to help us mark my fathers passing.
Anthony, I thank you for all the fun times we have spent together even if they were short lived. Over the years I have come to the conclusion that you must have been an angel sent by God to help me grieve and become a strong willed woman because no one has ever been able to help me see the light like you could. Clouds of darkness shadowed over me no matter what anyone else would say, but you made me smile with just your presence. You didn't have to say a word; everything was okay when you were beside me.