Show Dorothy Dix Talks WHY WAIT UNTIL PEOPLE ARE DEAD BEFORE BRINGING FLOWERS WHY OFFER WORDS OF LOVE ONLY TO DEAD EARS BRING THESE TRIBUTES TO YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHILE THEY ARE ALIVE A A POOR poon sick lck woman whose whoso sufferings have made mad her a little mor mol bid has hm madea made a curious request of a friend t When I am dead she h said my my neighbors will come to tomy tomy tomy my door with regret and sympathy Do not let any of them In the house because I have h K r lived here for fop years year lonely and forlorn and r rf shut In and net one on of ot them hem has has- dropped In to cheer and comfort me with a little t human companionship If they thy offer their cars for the funeral o refuse them because they never asked me meto meto m to take a ride though they must have known how how much an Invalid would enjoy getting out away from the four walla wall of her room and out into the country Do not let them lay laya fy a flower upon my coffin for they thy never gave me a single bloom In life NOW this womans woman's woman neighbors are 1110 ro not especially y hard and heartless people They are just busy DIX people engrossed In their own affairs even cven as you ou and L I And even en as you and aud I when they hear that Ih poor Invalid across the thc street Is dead they hey will be conscIence stricken at having baving failed In kindliness lIn ss to her and they will rush over overto overto overto to her house and try to atone neglect by heaping their tub ute utes on her bier We W all do the same thing and I I often think that the th most cynical thing In the world is il that we have to die to find out t I what our family and friends friend think of u us and the esteem In which we w are ar held in the community The words w we hungered and thirsted to hear the th love that we broke our hearth heart for I are only whispered Into deaf ears eart read the the eulogies eulogie that papers paper print when Mr hr A dies They J JUST call him a model citizen They hold him up as an example or of o civIc righteousness They speak of the unselfishness and the zeal and the efficiency with which he h served his city They laud his blameless life We W were all silent as clams about Mr As A's virtues while he lived yet et a ft tithe ot or such a tribute paid to him while he could know it ft would have made him feel that his long to this community was worthwhile i But no one so 10 much as gave him a word of praise He served Innumerable committees the hard work on the I boards of charities and Institutions He could always a be depended upon to fill any sort tort of a gap w and do the work of any shirker but everybody took him fer gr granted They said nothing when things went well They blamed him when thing things I went wrong It took death to make them appreciate him HEN II old oid Mr hr B D passed on ou we w told each other what whal a wonderful v WHEN vv old man he had been Why he had lived through the times that made history He was a veteran of ot the civil war He had hal seen villages grow V Into cities and railroads t thread read the country Tho The de de of o the telegraph the invention of ot electric lights and the phonograph and the telephone and the wireless and the radio Such an Interesting old man We Ye even repeated some or of o the things he used to say It would have made the old man radiantly happy if H while he was alive we had let him know that we admired him or If we had ever sat down don for an hour and nd listened to his gar garrulous talk of old times But w we never did We were not even decently civil to nm n m We pushed him Elide aside We let him see that he bored us The first attention we ever paid him was when it was too late for him to know or care v heth m I v er we w came to his house or not AND ND there is Miss hiss C who has been an Invalid for years year and years A E able on her good days day to patter from the th bed thi-bed bed to the window and andon andon on n her bad days just to turn her face to the wall and lie there en- en enduring en enduring during tho the long drawn out dull weariness that Is her life me Days and years days months years o drEar dreary drab monotony i We W are ar always Intending to go to see her to take her a jolly book to send tend her flowers to do something to-cheer to and brighten herlot her herlot herlot lot something that will at at least tell her that she has our love and sympathy j 4 We W dont don't do it because e we are so rushed with our own plea pleasures ures so absorbed in our own affairs But when we hear that hat she is dead we will all take time to go to the funeral and and send an ornate floral piece to lay on her coffin coffin 1 AND AND ND w wc o treat the members of our our own family In the same way A f J K If the spirits of ot the departed are permitted to come back to 10 earth Jt it must surprise many a one to read on his 01 or her tombstone that he Ile or of sho she was the tho beloved husband husband or wife of so and Tho poor ghost had never suspected such a thing In life liCe he ho oh o she had bad only known callous cold Indifference Neglect Fault finding Querulous complaints Never a word of tit praise or appreciation n Never Nevera a kiss with a thrill of or passion In It it- it Never er any tenderness or sIgn gu or of appreciation i h hIt It cannot matter to those who are aro ar safe in the love of God to know that their husbands and wives really loved them but It would have hav made such cuch a difference to them while they lived It would have hav made a a flower strewn strown pathway of what hat Tf was wu the road of Calvary e eLET'S L- L ETS ET'S not wait walt until people are ar dead to show our our love and L LET'S LETS elation of them Lets Let's send our flowers to the thi living i And lets let's begin today t 1 DOROTHY DIX Copyright by Public Ledger |