I Am Standing Upon The Seashore
by Henry Van Dyke
I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white
sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until at length
she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come
to mingle with each other.
Then, someone at my side says;
“There, she is gone!”
“Gone where?”
Gone from my sight. That is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull
and spar as she was when she left my side
and she is just as able to bear her
load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone
at my side says, “There, she is gone!”
There are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout;
“Here she comes!”
And that is dying.
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
Beautifully said. Prayers for you, my friend.
Condolences Gerard.
I have tears in my eyes and steaming down my face. I read this same writing the night my mum passed away. I was 2500 miles away. My prayers for you Gerad. May the Lord grant you peace and healing
I’m so sorry to read this, Gerard. She was – is – a treasure, always, and many lives she never knew were blessed because you shared her with us. May you feel her comforting presence, until you meet again on the other side.
I have always enjoyed tales about your Mom. Thank you for sharing her with us.
I am so very sorry.
I am glad we all got to share a small part of her.
My sympathies as well.
God Bless, Gerard. And I will add my thanks for what you have so graciously shared with us. Our lives are so very much the richer for it. Your Mom was a treasure. So is her son. May the Lord bless you both.
JWM
I am so, so sorry. I’ve always enjoyed your posts about your mother, who was — judging by those posts — a wonderful, remarkable person. Prayers and condolences. ..bruce..
Am truly sorry to hear of your Mother is gone. You were lucky to have had her as a Mother, and she lucky to have had such a loving son.
Condolences to you and your family. Your mother was blessed by having a son who so wonderfully described her to thousands of readers. We miss her due to that, and understand just a tiny bit how you feel.
Rise from the grip of time
thy soul be now restored
and come to light at last
in the bosom of the Lord.
I’m sorry for your loss. I always enjoyed reading your stories of her, she was a remarkable woman. My prayers for you and your family.
Condolences. Praying for her. And for you.
Gerard, so sorry to hear about your loss. The best we can hope for ultimately is too live life well and it sounds like your mother hit it out of the park.
Deepest sympathies to you, Gerard.
I enjoyed all of what you shared about your mom.
No doubt she was a terrific gal to have raised such great guy.
Peace to you.
I wish I had something better to say than, I’m sorry.
Thank you for gracing your pages with your mother. We love her too. My deepest sympathy and condolences to you and your family.
Nothing anyone can say will be much help, but it’s all most of us can offer. My sincere sympathy, and heartfelt prayers for comfort and peace to friends and family.
Thank you for sharing your mom with us.
A better life awaits.
I lurk much more than comment and always enjoy the stories about your mom, until this one.
She sounds wonderful, and I am sorry she’s gone from this shore. My sympathies to you and your family.
Words fail. Prayers for you and your mother.
My condolences.
My condolences, too.
My sincere condolences Gerard.
Thank you for sharing your mother with us over the years, Gerard. God blessed your family with her and she was blessed with y’all.
Sorry for your loss. A prayer for your mother and condolences for you.
So sorry to read this. Although not unexpected, still devastating. May God gently hold you and all who mourn your Mom’s passing. I’ll leave it to Reverend Graham to conclude my thoughts.
“Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”
No words I say can give you solace. I wish you the very best.
Your mother had a gift in you and your love for her that many never get to experience.
My poetry tastes run to the more direct and banal, I’m afraid, but this is my go-to poem when I think about my demise:
REQUIEM
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me;
“Here he lies where he longed to be,
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
Thanks…..that was really beautiful.
My deepest condolences! What a grand life she had.
Thank you for the gift of your mom to us, Gerard. I am so very sorry for your loss. All those long days
with her upon the Earth, and it is not enough time for all that Love desires to have. That is how we know that Love is eternal, and that Promise of Life eternal is sure and real. Love never fails.
Father of all, we pray to you for Lois, whom
we love but see no longer. Grant to her eternal rest. Let
light perpetual shine upon her. May her soul, through the
mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
May her memory be a blessing to you, your family, and all who knew her, and may the Source of Comfort give you peace.
Remembering Lois and you, Gerard, at Mass this afternoon at San Carlos Cathedral in Monterey. What a smile your mother had!
All Things Must Pass
Sunrise doesn’t last all morning
A cloudburst doesn’t last all day
Seems your love is up and has left you with no warning
It’s not always going to be this grey
All things must pass
All things must pass away
It’s not always going to be this grey
All things must pass
All things must pass away
Oh, dear Gerard, my deepest sympathy. May all our condolences here and elsewhere be a comfort to you.
Of course, to bury the dead is one of the chief corporal works of mercy–and lovingly giving your mother a bon voyage is such a merciful thing! As the Eastern Orthodox Christians say, “May her memory be eternal!”
My deepest sympathies, Gerard, and thank you for bringing your mother to these pages all these years.
You have my most sincere condolences upon the loss of your mother. There is no good time for one to lose a mother, early or late; we simply all become orphans at some point in this sad, old world. Thank you for all you have done for the blogosphere.
Her memory and your love for he will live forever.
Dearest Gerard…suddenly there is a sense of hushed silence, the kind one feels when watching snow fall.
You are so loved by so many.
So, so sorry for your loss, Gerard.
https://youtu.be/o9al6HNOgSo
Is it possible to love someone whom you’ve never met? Yes. We love you and we really love your mother because you love her so well in these pages.
She will be the first to tell you, “Well done, thou good and faithful son.”
May the peace of God sustain you, comfort you, strengthen you, Gerard.
For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
My condolences.
Sorry for your loss Gerard.
I’m sorry too GV. You were a good son to a good mother.
Prayerful condolences, Gerard. What Jewel said.
My sincerest condolences.
My condolences. 103 years, 38176 days of a life well lived.
In coming days celebrate the well lived life she had.
The Hobo
Beautiful and wonderfully expressed. I am so sorry for you.
I am Sorry..
“SONG OF THE RIVER”
The snow melts on the mountain
And the water runs down to the spring,
And the spring in a turbulent fountain,
With a song of youth to sing,
Runs down to the riotous river,
And the river flows on to the sea,
And the water again
Goes back in rain
To the hills where it used to be.
And I wonder if Life’s deep mystery
Isn’t much like the rain and the snow
Returning through all eternity
To the places it used to know.
For life was born on the lofty heights
And flows in a laughing stream
To the river below
Whose onward flow
Ends in a peaceful dream.
And so at last,
When our life has passed
And the river has run its course,
It again goes back,
O’er the selfsame track,
To the mountain which was its source.
So why prize life
Or why fear death,
Or dread what is to be?
The river ran its allotted span
Till it reached the silent sea.
Then the water harked back to the mountaintop
To begin its course once more.
So we shall run the course begun
Till we reach the silent shore,
Then revisit earth in a pure rebirth
From the heart of the virgin snow.
So don’t ask why we live or die,
Or wither, or when we go,
Or wonder about the mysteries
That only God may know.
by William Randolph Hearst
May you find comfort in this trying time; Hers was a life well-lived, and she was blessed with a loving son. Doesn’t get much better than that. Blessed Be.
Prayers and sympathies, and gladness at your blessings of her company for so long.
God bless you Gerard. I am so sorry to hear of your great loss.
That photo of your mom smiling with the cake for her 104th birthday is great! You’ve done well as a devoted son to a lovely aged woman. May you, and all who knew and loved her, be comforted by good memories of her.
My mom passed on thirty years ago. I wasn’t able to spend much time with her toward the end of her life, and though I regretted that for many years, I found, through the words and photos you shared, vicarious peace through reading of how you spent time with your mother in recent years. Thank you sir. God bless.
Very sorry to hear this, Gerard. Memory Eternal.
I’ve never been good at offering condolences, Gerard, so as I write this I’m tipping a glass of Jamesons to your mother’s memory and a life well lived.
Praying for you; thank you for sharing her with us.
I’m crying and praying for you.
Sorry to learn of your loss, Gerard.
“In one of those stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night. And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend…I shall not leave you.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
RIP Ms Lois and condolences to you, Gerard….Godspeed.
My condolences, Gerard. My mom was born in ’14 also, but she died 11 years ago
My condolences to you and your family Gerard. Thanks for sharing all of those wonderful stories about your Mom. I look forward to re-reading them in the future.
Oh, Gerard! My deepest of sympathy! I don’t know what else to say…
God bless you both.
Always.
My condolences, Gerard, and how wonderful that she hung around to brighten your life for so long.
Gerard, so sorry to read this, and I admit I was so surprised as well. You have lovingly written about your mother for so long that I came to see her as a permanent fixture in your life, though I knew she was well along in years. God bless you in these days!
My mother died four years ago at 87. I have yet to shed a tear. We were never close so I always read your essays about your mother with frankly an envious moment or two. You were truly blessed, and I know you know that.
Deepest condolences, Gerard.
G, very sorry to read this here today. Although she has passed, she will live on here in your words. Folks in years to come will surf here and read about this impressive woman that will always be your mother.
My condolences.
Since I was a child, I had wished that it was possible to go back in time and see the life my parents and grandparents led when they were young and wild. It’s wonderful that you know so much about your mother, and it’s been great to read what you have shared over time about her.
She had a long and wonderful life it seems. I need to make sure mine is more like hers.
I am so sorry for your lost.
Well, Gerard, your mother lived 4085 more days than my mother did. And I thought THAT was a miracle!! And in a sense it was, seeing as how she developed COPD early in life while residing in Philadelphia … and almost died from a case of pneumonia in 1939 when she was 17. Prospects weren’t looking too good for the youngest child of Arthur and Kathryn Courtin
Then in 1946, her parents came up with a brilliant solution: …….. Say, how’s about you marry that kid from Milwaukee who’s about to get a free medical degree courtesy of the US government. Then, see, you use his newly minted license to print money to get out of here. You might consider this little hick town in Arizona called Phoenix. They say it’s so dry there that one of the main landmarks is a river with no water in it. And one of the main drags in town is named after a tuberculosis sanatorium. Be just the thing for you
And that’s how my mother lived on for 76 additional years. I do believe that story is almost as miraculous as the story of your mother, Gerard
Gerard,
I’m so sorry for your loss, and at the same time so thankful that you loved your mom enough to share her with us. What a woman!
So sorry. My prayers are with you.
So sorry. My prayers are with you and her both.
My deepest condolences. Congratulations to you and her that you had so much time together.
Condolences.
Like many others here I looked forward to and every chapter of the amazing life that was your mom. Your love and admiration for her was there in every word you wrote. Sorrow and condolences on your loss.
It is good you had so much time with her, but that is small comfort now, I’m sure. Condolences on your loss.
Gerard, thank you for sharing with us so many wonderful stories of your mother.
What an amazing woman.
Condolences on your loss.
Gerard,
We are so grateful that we were able to meet you and Lois during the period of your “great troubles” last Fall. We both immediately fell in love with your Mom. We only wish that we could have met you both much earlier. Lois lived a full and loving life and she was blessed to have a son like you. Your writings about her will allow her to live on in the memories and imaginations of many of your readers and others. You have done well.
“This is not the world you need to worry about.” These were the words spoken by the doctor who told my husband in 2014 that his illness was both catastrophic and incurable. These words carried us through all of it, and me beyond.
This is not the world you need to worry about, Gerard, for your mother or for you.
All blessings.
Condolences to you, I know this is a great to you and your family. How amazing that she lived such a full life until the very end. May her memory be a blessing.
Deeply moving…so very sorry.
When my mother died in 2010, these were words of comfort for me.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
She was a good and righteous woman. How lucky you were to know her, how lucky you were to have the love of such a wonderful and grand lady. There is a time to mourn, but there is also a time to remember, and be glad. Love that is true does not die, but lives on through those that are loved, and can also renew that love.
My condolences for your (and our) loss, because I felt like she was a part of all of us that have come here. Even if you would never have shared the wonderful stories of your mother’s life, we would have known what kind of person she was just by your example as a son and person. My prayers are with you during this sad time.
Fair Winds and Following Seas…
Gerard,
I second what azlibertarian says. You and your family have my condolences, and you have my thanks for letting us get acquainted, however distantly, with your mother. She was a wonderful woman.
Hale Adams
Gerard, many women have left a mark on this world. Your Mother was a artist at life. The story of her bulletin board, tennis, and how you live your life show clearly her heart. Heaven is even better with her there.
This is very sad to hear. You have my condolences.
My most sincere condolences to you and your family.
Dear Gerard,
I wish – perhaps many if not all as well – that I would have had a chance to meet her, share a smile at an observation of our world. I think, through your writings, I was able to at least enjoy such an event, silently enjoying the paintings you created of your Mother, and the wonderful love between you.
Now, amidst my prayers for her soul and the peace of the Holy Spirit upon you, I imagine to myself, “what a remarkable woman! Such a precious Soul!”
Her song stays with you, good sir… as she most lovingly ensured it would.
Que Dios los Bendiga, amigo –
JR
I read your blog everyday, and even though we never met I consider you a friend. So sorry for your loss.
As I drove home from work tonight, I turned on the radio for the first time in at least a year (I listen to audiobooks), and this song was playing, just for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X29hPMgKUyM
Well Done (by The Afters)
What will it be like when my pain is gone
And all the worries of this world just fade away?
What will it be like when You call my name
And that moment when I see You face to face?
I’m waiting my whole life to hear You say
Well done, well done
My good and faithful one
Welcome to the place where you belong
Well done, well done
My beloved child
You have run the race and now you’re home
Welcome to the place where you belong
What will it be like when tears are washed away
And every broken thing will finally be made whole?
What will it be like when I come into Your glory
Standing in the presence of a love so beautiful?
I’m waiting my whole life for that day
I will live my life to hear You say
Well done, well done
My good and faithful one
Welcome to the place where you belong
Well done, well done
My beloved child
You have run the race and now you’re home
Welcome to the place where you belong
What will it be like when I hear that sound?
All of heaven’s angels crying out
Singing holy, holy, holy are You, Lord
Singing holy, holy, holy are You, Lord
Singing holy, holy, holy are You, Lord
Waiting my whole life for that day
Until then I’ll live to hear You say
Well done, well done
My good and faithful one
Welcome to the place where you belong
Well done, well done
My beloved child
You have run the race and now you’re home
Welcome to the place where you belong
Well done
Songwriters: Jason Ingram / Matt Fuqua / Josh Havens
Well Done lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
I am so very sorry. But I’m so glad she lived. What a beautiful, strong woman. Thank you for sharing her with us.
Quite a woman, Gerard. Spunky is the word that comes to mind. I suspect she was gracious but had no tolerance for flapdoodle. Ma Vanderleun will be in my prayers.
God, give Gerard the blessings that he needs.
May a stranger offer you condolences on your loss. You will remember her with love, many, many strangers have been enriched by you sharing hers with us.
Gerard, your mother is now walking with God.
This is what you messaged me in an email after I lost my eldest son. Yes, my son is walking with God and I am so blessed in the fact that you wrote me this wonderful message.
I never met your mother in person, but always thought of her as a dear neighbor.
My sincerest condolences
Mrs. & I are so very sorry for your loss.
Please accept my condolences on the passing of your mother.
And my thanks for sharing her remarkable life with all of us.
Rest.
Andy Jones
Orem, Utah.
So sorry for your loss, Gerard.
Because of your wonderful writing gifts, we share in the loss as well. Yet, somehow you find the time and strength to translate that unique loss into a universal human experience we can relate to- even find beauty and meaning.
My wife just buried her mother 2 weeks ago, and came back this week to two more memorials- her best friend’s mother and a dear woman from church who was a spiritual mother to many.
As soon as I am able to read them with a steady voice I would like read some of the wonderful poems you have shared- the one above and Dirge Without Music. I am not a poetry person but you make me want to be.
Thank you for sharing such important things, we all treasure them more than you can realize.
Your loss is staggering, Gerard, and all I can say, given the outpouring of your friends here, is that you aren’t alone. We love you, buddy. I think your Mom knows that…
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
“Now it was as if a huge sum in arithmetic were finally drawing to an end.
She had stuffed turkeys,chickens,squabs,gentlemen,and boys.
She had washed ceilings,walls,invalids,and children.
She had laid linoleum,repaired bicycles,wound clocks,stoked furnaces,and swabbed iodine on 10,000 grievous wounds.
Looking back on 30 billions of things started,carried,finished and done,it all summed up,totaled out;the last decimal was placed,the final zero swung slowly into line.
A long time back,she thought,I dreamed a dream,and was enjoying it so much when someone wakened me,and that was the day when I was born.
And now? Now, let me see…She cast her mind back.Where was I? she thought…how to take up the thread and the pattern of that lost dream again?
She put out a small hand. There…Yes,that was it.She smiled.Deeper in the warm snow hill she turned her head upon her pillow.That was better.Now,yes,now she saw it shaping in her mind quietly,and with a serenity like a sea moving along an endless and self-refreshing shore.
Now she let the old dream touch and lift her from the snow and drift her above the scarce-remembered bed.
“It’s all right,” she whispered,as the dream floated her.
“Like everything else in life,it’s fitting.”
And the sea moved her back down the shore.
Ray Bradbury, The Leave-Taking
Thank you for sharing your lovely Mother with us.
RIP. Lovely poem.
Condolences, Sir!
God Speed Mom.
Peace be with you. Been there.
Condolences to you, Gerard.
I am so sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing her remarkable personality over the years. Our family will keep you both in our prayers.
Gerard, I am sorry to hear of your loss. You have my condolences and you, your family, and mom are in my prayers.
Deepest condolences, hugs, and prayers. Thank you for sharing your wonderful wonderful Mother with all us rabble. I look forward to meeting her when we see and know face to face — and you too, Gerard, in the fullness of time. May the Lord bless and keep you and yours.
So very sorry to learn of your loss, Gerard. Your mom wasn’t only a blessing to you, but to all of us, through your writing. God give you comfort, and keep her eternally. Condolences.
With deepest condolences.
It’s never easy, but she lived a full and active life.
She lives on in you and in your writings.
Hope she meets my Mother in Heaven, it’s a good chance they would be friends.
Love and prayers to you and yours,
prambo
Deepest condolences, Gerard. She was a wonderful woman and mom who lived long and well. Your writing about her was a tribute to her and your love for her. A relationship to be envied.
May she RIP.
I feel like your mother is a friend after so many years of reading about her. I grieve with you brother
When my mom lost her own mother, my mom was in her 60s, but she said, “Now I am an orphan.” I realized what she meant when I lost my own mother a few years ago. It is the end of the last vestiges of childhood spent with one who knew you, and loved you, from the moment of your inception. It’s a very profound loss and you have my most sincere condolences.
Deepest condolences and prayers, Gerard, there are no words after reading Mom’s Old Flowers”.
So good to know she lived long and vibrant.
Condolences on your loss until you meet again.
Condolences, Gerard.
Lois lives on in you.
You are blessed. And she hung out until you needed her, after the fire. A coincidence? I think not. My condolences, I wish I could give you more, you’ve given me much over the years.
I shall pray for her, though I doubt she needs it, and I hope she will intercede for me and mine.
Godspeed to her, and you, best wishes always.
There is little I can add to what others have written. I am so sad for you and wish you comfort and ease in the coming days.
Sorry to hear the news, Gerard. Thank you for all you have shared about your mother. What a life…
So sorry to hear, Gerard. Sounds like she had a great long life and left a lot of great memories, hope they are with you always.
Again and again and again… and yet again Thank you and God bless you all.
Into the armsof the Lord of all things. Be at Peace.
God bless her, Gerard, and God bless you for being there for her.
My most sincere condolences Gerard. I have followed you for a number of years and enjoyed hearing about your mom. I hope God will give you some comfort for your sorrow.
Memory Eternal. That’s a great photo to remember her by.
I’m sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing some of your memories with us.
My condolences, Gerard. And what a wonderful choice for the poem, sweeter than any flowers I could send.
My mother passed several years ago at the age of 100. I believe that we are so blessed to be able to have our mothers around for so long. I am sure you will miss your mother as much as I miss mine but we can be grateful to have had them with us for the time we did. There is nothing that can match a mother’s love. My prayers and thoughts are with you.
So sorry Gerard. She’s at God’s Golden Shore now.
I’m so sorry Gerard and Tom
She was such a vibrant woman and I know a great mom to her 3 boys! You are all like her and blessed to have had her for so long. But mostly to have such a deep and caring person to learn from … she was deep and my memories are from so many years ago.
I pray you will all carry her wonderful spirit thru the rest of your lives.
Warm thoughts
Helen
God Bless You, Gerard. Your writings about Mom always gave me an opportunity to enhance my reflections of my wonderful mother who passed 9 years ago.
Lois had a sharp wit and rarely missed an opportunity to give me a hard time…and I loved her for it!
Just returned home, and discovered your lose. Prays out to you sir. Thank,you for sharing parts of her life with us.
Dirk and Carole Williams