In the early hours of this morning, Sunday 3rd July, while REM aptly play 'Everybody Hurts' for Live 8, Sid phoned to tell me that Mark had passed away.
Ant and I promptly had a shot in toast to Mark, to thank him for the wonderful brother he was to me, and to the gentle and loving man he had grown to become.
In times like this, i'm reminded of a poem which tends to capture my feelings towards someone passing away, and felt I would like to share it here.
DEATH IS NOTHING AT ALL
Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was, let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of a shadow on it. 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 waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.
