Put Me In The Story: The Dash Personalized Memorial Book

BY LINDA ELLIS

In Remembrance of

Lillian Bain

It’s not the date you were born, or the date you died, that really matters. It’s “the dash” between those years and what you do with it that makes all the difference.

Celebrating the Dash of

Lillian Bain

Lillian Bain January 12, 1933–September 1, 2014 A great soul never dies. We love and miss you dearly.

May you rest in peace.

BY LINDA ELLIS

I

read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on the tombstone

from the beginning‌to the end.

H

e noted that first came the date of birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all‌

was the dash between those years.

F

or that dash represents all the time that they spent alive on earth and now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.

F

or it matters not, how much we own, the cars…the house…the cash…

What matters is how we live and love‌

and how we spend our dash.

S

o think about this long and hard; are there things you’d like to change?

For you never know how much time is left that can still be rearranged.

I

f we could just slow down enough to consider what’s true and real…

and always try to understand the way other people feel.

A

nd be less quick to anger and show appreciation more and love the people in our lives‌

like we’ve never loved before.

I

f we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile‌

remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.

S

o when your eulogy is being read‌

with your life’s actions to rehash…

would you be proud of the things they say‌

about how you spent your dash?

BY LINDA ELLIS

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning…to the end.

He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time that they spent alive on earth and now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own, the cars…the house…the cash.

What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard; are there things you’d like to change?

For you never know how much time is left that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough to consider what’s true and real and always try to understand the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger and show appreciation more and love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile… remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read with your life’s actions to rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?

Personal Memories of Lillian Bain

Copyright © 1996 Linda Ellis Cover and internal design © 2014 Sourcebooks, Inc. Cover photo © Thinkstock.com Internal photos © Thinkstock.com, Linda Ellis Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc. Put Me In the Story is a trademark of Sourcebooks, Inc. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or any other – except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published by Put Me In the Story, a publication of Sourcebooks, Inc. P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410 (630) 961-3900 Fax: (630) 961-2168 www.sourcebooks.com First published by Simple Truths, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the publisher.

Source of Production: Lightning Source, Inc. 1246 Heil Quaker BLVD, La Vergne, TN 37086 Date of Production: MM YYYY Run Number: 99999 Printed and bound in the United States of America.

LSI 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

Joseph Epstein once said, “We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents, or the country of our birth.

We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death.

But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.�

This is what The Dash is all about.