Hi all,
I’m not sure if this is allowed but I could really use your help.
My father died suddenly three days ago and I’m in charge of writing his obituary.
We were both avid readers and I want to include a literary quote. Something poetic and beautiful, about life or love or loss. He loved sci fi and fantasy, especially Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit (both of which he read to me when I was a child). He also enjoyed the Harry Potter series.
Some other authors he liked to read:
* Jim Butcher
* Stephen King (we were both fans, especially of The Dark Tower series)
* Simon R Green
* Iain Banks
* Richard Morgan
* Robert Jordan
* David Eddings
I’d be eternally grateful for any assistance. My brain feels like mush so I’m having a really hard time thinking of anything.
Thank you.
by notthe1_88
8 Comments
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Sorry for your loss. And this, in context of your post, make me teary: “Go then, there are other worlds than these…”
I’m so so sorry about your dad. Here are a few from LOTR that might suit?
Gandalf: “End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it…. White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.”
“‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’”
I’m terribly sorry for your loss, having been there before. Maybe this would fit for you.
From Tolkien, in The Lord of the Rings:
I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;
Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.
I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.
For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.
I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.
But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.
​
More Tolkien
The road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.
I’ve always loved this quote from Harry Potter: *Do not pity the dead, Harry, pity the living, and above all, those who live without love*
My dad showed me his love for reading and books at an early age and it’s an important part of our relationship too. My condolences to you!
“We’re living in momentous times, Garion. The events of a thousand years and more have all focused on these very days. The world, I’m told, is like that. Centuries pass when nothing happens, and then in a few short years events of such tremendous importance take place that the world is never the same again.” David Eddings in ‘Pawn of Prophecy’
“Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.”
When my mom passed unexpectedly a few years ago a JRR Tolkien quote that did a lot of heavy lifting for me was “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” I wish you all the best right now and going forward in your journey