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garden
We have gathered here today
to say our farewells to the
family home. We come
with sorrow and grief in our
hearts. We have come to acknowledge
the void that the hub, the
centre, the heart of this
family has come to an end
of an era.
We acknowledge that your lives
will never be quite the same
again without this centre
but we can part from this
home with love and thanksgiving
for all the good memories
it has left us. Loving memories
that can encourage, support,
sustain and comfort us in
the days ahead.
Saying good‑bye through
ritual can affirm relationships
on a heartfelt level by honouring
the people who have meant
the most to you. It can create
room to release the emotions
that may be take time to adjust,
grieve, and let go. The rite
helps to integrate changes
with more ease. It gives you
an opportunity to release
and mitigate some of the stress,
mourning the past and embracing
the future.
Look at the land around this home.
Not just the garden but its
surroundings. Share now with
us a memory, a story that
will set the context of this
home.
With
an imaginary spiral, circle
into the house from outside.
Starting with the front door
we are going to go from room
to room and let you tell a
story about something you
remember from each place.
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We shall light a candle as we
enter and on
the tender, love filled moments,
the times we have shared eating
meals,
doing homework,
watching television
the hard times,
times making up and playing,
fun times
pretend times, real times, hurting
times
peaceful times, comforting times
a quiet corner in which to read
the garden in which to imagine
bedrooms in which to dream
living room in which to eat
and grow
bathroom in which to become
whole and clean
a home full of laughter, music
and joy.
And as you leave you will
take with you your love and
the millions of memories of
all that we have shared.
Fear not nor grieve at our departure,
you whom have loved this place
so much, for our roots and yours
are forever intertwined.
[adapted from Edward Hays]
In the garden the balloons
will be attached to the trees
tie on messages then release
them whilst the music plays:
Balloon release
to the
song Fly sung by Celine Dion
leaving place a flower on the
windowsill.
Use the silences to say your
own prayers of thanksgiving
for each room.
In each
room a candle is lit:
We live in many darknesses.
We are often uncertain. We are
sometimes afraid. In the darkness,
we light a candle of hope.
A candle
is lit
We all have sorrows. We have
known pain. Each of us carries
special regrets. In our pain
we light a candle of forgiveness.
A candle
is lit
We are sometimes lonely and
the world seems cold and hard.
In our loneliness, we light
a candle of warmth.
A candle
is lit
As a family we had good days
and bad days, but we have learnt
to love each other through these
times. We light a candle of
love.
A candle
is lit
We have our joys, our times
of happiness. Each of us receives
gifts material and spiritual.
We light a candle of thanks.
A candle is lit
We have known fun and anger,
laughter and tears, but most
of all love. In our wonder we
light a candle of praise to
the enduring spirit of love.
A candle
is lit
We bring together many uncertainties,
many sorrows, many joys, much
wonder. We bring together many
candles, many lights. May the
separate lights burning in each
room become one flame, that
together we may be nourished
by the glow of our memories.
By the
back door:
And so it is that this home
will never entirely leave you
because the memories within
it form the very fabric of your
own lives which from time to
time you will notice in your
own actions and words which
in turn you too will pass onto
your children and they in turn
to theirs. As in these words:
Generation to Generation
In a house which becomes a
home,
one hands down and another
takes up
the heritage of mind and heart,
laughter and tears, musings
and deeds.
Love, like a carefully loaded
ship,
Crosses the gulf between the
generations.
Therefore, we do not neglect
the ceremonies of our passage:
When we wed, when we die,
And when we are blessed with
a child;
When we depart and when we
return;
When we plant and when we
harvest.
Let us pass onto our own children
and our children’s children.
for it is not the place of some
official to hand them their
heritage.
If others impart to our children
our knowledge and ideals
they will lose all of us that
is wordless and full of wonder.
Let us build memories in our
children,
lest they allow the treasures
to be lost
and it is us who must give them
the keys
For we hold them in our hearts.
We live, not by things, but
by the meanings of things.
heart, laughter and tears,
musings and deeds.
so let us pass on those things
of love
from generation to generation.
(adapted from Antoine de St.
Exupery)
It is our love, freely given
and freely received, which is
the most real and the most beautiful
of all the realities we know.
It is the richest gift we have.
It is our most treasured legacy;
it will not rust, decay or devalue.
Whatever the length of time
may be to have known of this
love here in this home, through
these people, is to have experienced
something that can never be
taken from you. For this home
was a haven for the physical
and emotional nourishment of
family, extended family and
friends.
The very fibre of this home
is woven like golden threads
into the tapestry of your own
lives and together your memories
form many happy pictures taken
from many different angles.
And if this family home, full
of the spirits of all those
who have lived and had their
being in this place, could speak
to us perhaps they would say:
We leave our thoughts, our ways,
our cares
to you whom we have treasured
beyond gold and precious gems
We give you what no thief can
steal,
the memories of our times together. |
