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When my Marine husband passed away, I had the following exerpt printed and laminated for all who attended his memorial service (and all were Believers). The words touched the hearts of all.

I will do the same at the memorial service for my two best friends who were killed in a roll-over accident, as I scatter their ashes.

May these words bring you some comfort, dear Kris Kringle, and may your dear wife Rest In Peace.......

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“I often feel that death is not the enemy of life, but its friend; for it is the knowledge that our years are limited which makes them so precious. It is the truth that time is but lent to us which makes us, at our best, look upon our years as a trust handed into our temporary keeping.

We are like children privileged to spend a day in a great part, a park filled with many gardens, playgrounds, and azure-tinted lakes with white boats sailing upon the tranquil waves.

True, the day allotted to each of us is not the same in length, in light, in beauty. Some children of earth are privileged to spend a long and sunlit day in the garden of the earth. For others the day is shorter, cloudier, and dusk descends more quickly as in a winter’s tale.

But whether our life is a long summery day or a shorter wintry afternoon, we know that inevitably there are storms and squalls that overcast even the bluest heaven and there are sunlit rays that pierce the darkest autumn sky. The day that we are privileged to spend in the great park of life is not the same for all human beings; but there is enough beauty, joy, and gaiety in the hours if we will but treasure them.

Then for each of us the moment comes when the great nurse, death, takes us by the hand and quietly says, “It is time to go home. Night is coming. It is your bedtime, child of earth. Come, you are tired. Lie down at last in the quiet nursery of nature and sleep. Sleep well. The day is gone. Stars shine in the canopy of eternity.”

From Peace of Mind by Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman