Life After Death
To Zeb and Family
Colonel David Marcus was killed in battle
during the Israeli War in June 1948.
In his wallet was found a card
that spoke of death. It read:
"I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails
to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
"She is an object of beauty and strength.
And I stand and watch her,
until at length
she is only a ribbon of white cloud
just where the sky and sea
come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says,
'There! She's 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 just as able to bear her load
of living freight--to the place of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
"And just at the moment
When someone at my side says,
'There! She's gone!' there are other voices
ready to take up the glad shout,
'There! She comes!'
And that is dying."
2Mc 7:1-2 9-14; Lk 20:27-38