We gather today to remember, not to mourn.
We can be sad that those we’ve loved are not here by our side,
but we can also rejoice in how their love,
their being, still touches the deepest places in our hearts.
We remember
our parents,
our spouses,
our brothers and our sisters,
our children, taken before their time, and
our friends, the families we chose but were not born to.
We are here to support each other as we remember
in pain, but also in joy, those we continue to love who are gone.
