Texts read during Edu's remembrance in Cambridge

Brink Of Eternity

In desperate hope I go and search for her
in all the corners of my room;
I find her not.

My house is small
and what once has gone from it can never be regained.

But infinite is thy mansion, my lord,
and seeking her I have to come to thy door.

I stand under the golden canopy of thine evening sky
and I lift my eager eyes to thy face.

I have come to the brink of eternity from which nothing can vanish
--no hope, no happiness, no vision of a face seen through tears.

Oh, dip my emptied life into that ocean,
plunge it into the deepest fullness.
Let me for once feel that lost sweet touch
in the allness of the universe.

Rabindranath Tagore



If I should die and leave you here awhile,
Be not like others, sore undone, who keep
Long vigils by the silent dust, and weep.
For my sake, turn again to life and smile,
Nerving thy heart and trembling hand to do
Something to comfort weaker hearts than thine.
Complete those dear unfinished tasks of mine,
And I perchance may therein comfort you.

A. Price Hughes



If I should go before the rest of you,
Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone.
Nor when I'm gone speak in a Sunday voice,
But be the usual selves that I have known.
Weep if you must,
Parting is hell,
But life goes on,
So sing as well.

Joyce Grenfell

Words from Edu to Aleida on her uncle's death.

Dear Ale. You are right. Death is something so difficult to accept and probably something that you never get to understand completely. The same goes for suffering. I am so sorry that you have to go through all this. With the people we love, in the beginning, the pain is greater than anything else. But with time, the most beautiful aspects of the person, the reasons they lived their life, the dreams they fought for, all these things, form our memory of them. The people we have lost will always be with us, their words, their affection and this is because we loved them so much. They are not gone forever. A part of them stays with us. When my uncle died or when a good friend of mine died who was only 21, I kept asking myself what was the meaning of life, of accumulating experiences and emotions, love and pain, over so many years when they would end in nothing. These were very distressing thoughts. With time, I started looking at things in a different way and I came to the conclusion that the only way to find a meaning in death is to think that those who died continue living in the people who loved them. I feel like this about my uncle and my friend. Sometimes I surprise myself using the same expressions they used or making the same jokes or defending an idea which they fought for. I feel that they are still with me in this way. Life is not only suffering, there is also happiness, and we all have the right to achieve it. Do not stop fighting for it, for yourself and for the people you love, but don't fight against yourself. Many suffer, very many suffer. Some enjoy life. Do not look only at one side of the coin and most of all, do not make yourself look only at one side of the coin.

Eduardo Delgado Donate