The love of the human heart is the most real and the most
Beautiful of all the realities we know.
It is the richest gift of our manhood and womanhood.
It is the love that joins us together as lovers as husband and wife,
As father and mother, as parent and child,
and as friends and neighbors.
Whatever the length of time may be, to have known something of this
is to have experienced the supreme privilege of being human.
The anguish of parting cannot destroy this most real of all realities.
The love has been,
The affection has existed,
The ties have been woven.
Life has been shared, the joys and the sorrows.
This has been as real and strong as anything in life.
The love that once was born can never die
For it has become part of us, of our life,
Woven into the very texture of our being.
Each of us would wish to leave some part of ourselves,
Yes, every one of us, some memory, some influence for good,
So here and now we bear witness to the one we knew in life,
Who now in death bequeaths a subtle part, precious and beloved.
Which will be with us in truth and beauty,
In dignity and courage and love
To the ends of our days.