Two years ago we celebrated my Dad's birthday, January 27th.
Gunnar shot this beautiful portrait that very day.
Showing my father's most inner personality.
Awake, conscious, intelligent, loving, but shy.
June first same year my father went home to stay with his parents and siblings.
I miss him so.
This was one of the poems he often would read loud to me.
Most of his favorite poems he knew by heart.
When I am Dead, My Dearest by Christina Georgina Rossetti
(1830-1894)
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget .