I am occasionally asked to suggest a stitching card pattern suitable for a sympathy card. I usually suggest something featuring flowers combined with suitable words. A thread about words of sympathy on the Form-A-Lines forum had contributors suggesting some beautiful and heartfelt sentiments. One contributor summed it up with “It is always useful to have appropriate words to express our thoughts at such difficult times, though hope I don’t need them often!”
Here are the suggestions:
Native American Saying
May the stars carry your sadness away,
May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
May hope forever wipe away your tears,
And, above all, may silence make you strong.
By Chief Dan George, Native Canadian Indian.
The following words come from a lovely poem that was read at the Queen Mother’s funeral service.
She is gone
You can shed tears that she is gone
Or you can smile because she has lived
You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back
Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her
Or you can be full of the love that you shared
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday
You can remember her and only that she is gone
Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
Or you can do what she would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.
Written 1981 by David Harkins, Cumbria, UK.
Heartache
Death leaves a heartache no one can heal,
love leaves a memory no one can steal.
Extract from a poem by Alexandrea Faith Knapp.
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.
Unknown
You could cry because he died,
Better to smile because he lived.
Unknown.
With thanks to the following forum members who took part in the discussion; Beryl Tandydog, Hilda, Jasu, Jenny, Katharine, LazyKay, SarahS and Scrubbybubbles.
The illustration is from the Stitching Cards Flower Border Thinking of You pattern.
If you would like to suggest some words of sympathy please add them in a comment to this post.