Mors non est finis

Dear friends of Matt and visitors to this blog,

it was a beautiful, sunny and cold Thursday 5 years ago today when Matthew died.

As you read the following poem be comforted and filled with solid hope.

If death my friend and me divide,

thou dost not, Lord, my sorrow chide,
or frown my tears to see;
restrained from passionate excess,
thou bidst me mourn in calm distress
for them that rest in thee.

I feel a strong immortal hope,
which bears my mournful spirit up
beneath its mountain load;
redeemed from death, and grief, and pain,
I soon shall find my friend again
within the arms of God.

Pass a few fleeting moments more
and death the blessing shall restore
which has snatched away;
for me thou wilt the summons send,
and give me back my parted friend
in that eternal day.

Charles Wesley

Picture taken in Tollesbury, November 2010, a month before Matt was diagnosed with leukaemia.