Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner.
All is well.Henry Scott Holland
Matthias passed away on Wednesday, October 31st. He had a heart failure during his weekly soccer game with his work colleagues. He was in Switzerland for a few weeks and intended to return to Santa Fe around mid-November. We had been looking forward to so many happy things in the next few weeks – watching the cranes on their migration near Albuquerque, hiking to the Tent Rocks National Monument with him, watching the Nutcraker in Santa Fe, celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas here…
Even though we feel his presence every moment, we miss him! But we also know that he is free and happy, and waiting for us.
Please keep him in your thoughts as the kind man, wonderful dad and faithful friend he was.
Link: Obituary by his colleagues