Prayer Request for a Dear Friend

Prayer Request for a Dear Friend

 It is with a sad heart that I am asking for you to keep Shirley Weir Griffiths in your prayers. This evening she took her last breaths and passed from this life to join her husband Robert in heaven.There are no words that I can offer that can bring comfort to my dear friend and her family. 

    It is never easy to say good-bye to a loved one and I think never easy to say good-bye to your mom. There is a quote that says “ The death of a mother is the first sorrow wept without her” ~ Author Unknown. It is one of the hardest sorrows to face when you are blessed to have a Mother or Grandmother like Mrs.Griffiths. 

     The loss of a loved one is never easy, no matter what the circumstances are, no matter how much time you have to prepare. There will always be the want for one more day or just one more hour. Life is ever so short when you love someone and have to say goodbye. Mrs. Griffiths had and will continue to have a life that was filled with so much love, care and memories. Sometimes a life that was enriched with memories of family and friends comes to a point that people and memories are hard to recall and unfortunately this happened to Mrs. Griffiths. The love of her husband, Robert, was never hard for her to recall. Their love transcended any illness and place. Not long after hearing of her passing a line from a song by Kathy Mattea came to mind and I felt like Mrs. Griffiths would be saying this line to her loving husband Robert, “ Where have you been? I’ve looked for your forever and a day. Where have you been? I’m just not myself when you’re away”. It is a beautiful song of a love that goes beyond any illness and time.  

   I am always reminded when someone passes from this life to the next of the Irish Funeral Prayer. Who that person was to you, they shall forever be. Your Mom is your Mom no matter what side of Life you are on. Death does not change the love she had for you or the love you had for her. Mrs. Griffiths was and will always be a Daughter, a Wife, a Mother, a Grandmother, a Great Grandmother, Family and a Friend.

I ask that we all keep Shirley Weir Griffiths in our prayers and offer up prayers of peace and love for her family.  I also ask that you read the Irish Funeral Prayer and remember all those who have gone before us and know they are just waiting for us on the other side of Heaven. Also if you want to listen to the song I quoted by Kathy Mattea click here. 

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and may eternal rest grant to her, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon her. Amen

An Irish Funeral Prayer 

Death is nothing at all.

It does not count.

I have only slipped away into the next room.

Everything remains as it was.

The old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.

Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

Call me by the old familiar name.

Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.

Put no sorrow in your tone.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.

Let it be spoken without  effort

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 mind because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.

All is well. Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.

One brief moment and all will be as it was before.

How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting,  when we meet again.