The Healing Journey

August 3, 2023

David Harkins was an aspiring 23-year-old artist working as a baker in 1982 when he wrote a short prose poem in honor of a young woman who had been his model for several years. Painting was a hobby for him, and she agreed to pose. And while their relationship was never romantic, he felt so strongly for her that he wrote two simple lines, “Do not shed tears when I have gone but smile instead because I have lived,” which he titled “Remember Me.”

It later became known as “She Is Gone” and achieved national recognition when Queen Elizabeth II chose it for part of a funeral ceremony when her mother Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother died in April 2002. It became so popular that it was read at other services and additional verses were added.

She Is Gone

You can shed tears that she is gone
Or you can smile because she has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back
Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left.

Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her
Or you can be full of the love that you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her and only that she is gone
Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
Or you can do what she would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

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