Patrick Christian Barbosa

                          SHINE AWAY MY SPECIAL STAR

                  As death, when we come to consider it closely,

               is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during

               the last few years such close relations with this best and

                truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no

                longer terrifying to me, but is indee very soothing and

                 consoling! And I thank God for graciously granting me

                 the opportunity of learning that death is the key which

                 unlocks the door to our true happiness.

                                                      Wolfcang Amadeus Mozart

                             Sorrow is better than laughter; 

                                     it may sadden your face, but it

                              sharpens your understanding.

                                                                           Ecclesiates 7:3

                     He heals the broken-hearted and bandages up

                      their wounds.

                                                          Psalms 147:3

                     Suffering and pain make little server to me without

                      God... this does not mean that I have not prayed,

                       as Jesus did, that it might be God's will that " this cup

                        pass me by." But by embracing the pain, by looking

                         into it and beyond it, I have come to see od's presence

                          in even the worst situations.

                                                               Joseph Cardinal Bernardin

                 The edges of God are tragedy. The depths of God are

                 joy, resurrection, life. Resurrection answers crucifixion;

                  life answers death.

                                                 Marjorie Hewwitt  Suchocki

                                FOREVER LOVED AND MISSED

                  Great religions promise that we will have company

                  [ at the hour of death] Death related visions do, too.

                   Hospice nurse tell story after story of dying patients

                   reaching out with joy to someone unseen just before

                   they die.

                                                             Molly Cox. Chapman

                 The soul would have no rainbow had 

                  the eyes no tears.

                                                         John Lance Cheney

            I used to think that the Angel of Death

            would be a terrible thing. I realize now 

            that the Angel of Death would have to

            God's most tender and understanding Angel,

             to be sent to us at such a significant, frightening moment.

                                                 Marianne Williamson  

                Only with the appearance of the Risen Jesus

                 do the disciples see that God's ultimate word

                  is love rather than condemnation. They realize

                  what happened to Jesus [Resurrection] is the

                   destiny of all human beings.

                                                 Jen Sobrino           

                       FOREVER LOVED AND MISSED SON!

        It's the neverness that is so painful. Never again to be here with us...

       Never to sit with us at table, ner to travel with us, never to laugh 

       with us, never to embrace as he leaves for school, never to see his

        brothers and sisters marry. All the rest of our lives we must live

         without him. Only our death can stop the pain of his death.

                                                                           Nicholas Wolterstorff  

                         I will comfort them and turn their mourning

                         into joy, their sorrow into gladness.

                                                                  Jeremiah 31:13

               It is very hard to be in a gathering of people smiling,

               laughing, socializing, and interacting with others as I am

               feeling smottered with grief, gasping for air from missing

               and longing for my son Patrick and thinking why he is not

               here among us. My guilt trip escalated... Am I a bad

               person? Is it selfish of me to have these thoughts, feelings?

               But the truth is I am just empty, alone, sad, and sorrowful.

                I want my son Patrick back in my life so desperatly it aches,

                which send me into a spiral of sad thoughts and feelings.  

                                                           LostMom to Patrick Barbosa 

                      My life will never be the same without my son Patrick

                       and it scares me to think of it or accept the real facts...

                        Patrick is really gone out of my physical.

                        I am trying so hard to understand and believe there is

                       life after death... sometimes I do and other time there is

                       doubt when it hit me I will never see Patrick in my

                        lifetime but I am gone... that empty space hurts so deep

                         it scares me.

                                                          LostMom to Patrick Barbosa

                      God feels every bereaved parent's pain wipes all 

                       tears that no human being can do.

                        God soothes and heals all pain not drugs. 

                         With God's grace and time, I will find some

                          peace one day, but the whole peace the day I join 

                          Patrick in God's kingdom.

                        The pain of losing Patrick and the love I have for

                         my son Patrick weigh the same, for I love Patrick as

                          much I am aching for losing him, missing and longing

                          for his presence. 

                      I had no clue or an idea how priceless treasure Patrick

                       was to me and in my life until I lost precious son and I

                        was left empty and lost. 

                                                     LostMom to Patrick Barbosa

From One Mother Who Lost a Child to Another

My Mom She Tells A Lot Of Lies
She never did before. From now until the day she dies.
She'll tell a whole lot more.
She used to tell the truth But now it doesn't matter.
I died and went to heaven Her life is all a-shatter.
Ask my Mom how is she. She'll say "Yes I'm fine!"
She wants to beg "Please help me. I can't find that girl of mine!"
Ask my Mom how is she She'll say "I'm alright."
If that's the truth then tell me Why does she cry each night?
Ask my Mom how is she She seems to cope so well.
She didn't have a choice you see Nor the strength to yell.
You think you know the feeling But this cannot be.
For even though you loved me You didn't love as much as she.
She will smile and tell you "It's o.k. God has a plan."
But she will turn away and cry 'Cause she just can't understand.
Tell a joke and she will laugh But she is not o.k.
She wants to share the joke with me But it will not be today.
I watch from here in Heaven. Her distress disturbs my peace.
Will someone please take care of her And thus take care of me?
"Some day you will feel better. "Yes I will." she lies.
She knows this will not happen Until the day she dies.
"I was so lucky! I had her all those years!"
(They passed in a minute I shed so many tears.)
Ask my Mom how is she She'll say "Thank you. Good."
She cannot tell you how she feels. Oh how I wish she could.
Ask my Mom how is she "I'm fine I'm well I'm coping."
For God's sake Mom just tell the truth Just say your heart is broken.
Ask my Mom how is she "I'm well I'm good. And you?"
I'll shake my head in Heaven. It simply isn't true.
She'll love me all her life. I loved her all of mine.
But if you ask how is she She'll lie and say she's fine.
Her carnival is over. She's stepped off the carousel.
But to save you feeling badly She'll say "Thanks all is well."
My Mom she's not gone mad yet. But oh so very nearly.
Don't ask my Mom how is she Ask how is she really.
I am here in Heaven. I cannot hug from here.
If she lies to you don't listen. Hug her hold her near.
On the day we meet again We'll smile and I'll be bold.
I'll say "You're lucky to get in here Mom
With all the lies you told!"

                  LIFE CAN BE A SAD MYSTERY BUT DEATH IS A SURE

               DESTINY FOR ALL OF US. OUTLIVING OUR CHILDREN

                IS AN UNTHINKABLE, UNBEARABLE, UNFORTABLE,

                MYSTERY... DESTINY. 

                              PLEASE GOD HELP ME WALK THIS EMPTY

                       JOURNEY ALONG SIDE WITH YOU AND WITH

                        MY BELOVED SON PATRICK IN YOUR HOLY

                        AND LOVING ARMS AND NOT ALONE. AMEN.     

      Every religion believes in eternity... another life. This life on earth

     is not the end. People who believe it is the end, fear death. If it was

     properly explained that death was nothing but going home to God,

      then there would be no fear of death.

                                                              Mother Teresa 

            One of the Greek words in the New Testament for healing

           implies salvation. Spiritual healing does not restore  a person

           to the place they were before the illness. It provides a more

            comprehensible health care package: The peace and healing

            of God that defies human understanding can bring us salvation

             and keep our hearts and minds untroubled... even when they do

              not satisfy our analytical inclinations.

                                                                  Diane Komp

                            FOREVER REMEMBERED SON!

   The soul is not a physical entity, but instead refers to everything

     about us that is not physical... our values, memories, identity,

     sense of humor. Since the soul represents the parts of the human

      being that are not physical, it cannot get sick, it cannot die, it

       cannot disappear. For short, the soul is immortal.

                                                      Rabbi Harold Kushner 

        Not only were we told that the death experience was free of

        pain; people reported that they did not want to come back.

         After being met by loved ones, or guides, they traveled to a

          place that so loving and comforting that they did not want to

           return.

                                                             Elizabeth Kubler Ross

             We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment

              of waking from a troubled dream: it may be so at the

                moment of death.

                                                        Nathaniel Hawthorne      

             When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart.... and you

               shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has

                 been your delight.

                                                     Kahlil Gibran     

      GONE TOO SOON BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN! 

          Death is nothing but a change of form. Material dies to

         become a robe. Wood dies to become furniture. Clay dies

         to become brick. Brick dies to become wall and building.

          Death is just transformation from one form to another form.

           The previous form is dead; the new form is born.

                                                          William Elliott

          Death is nothing at all... I have only slipped away into

          the next room. I am I and you are you. Whatever we were to

           each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name,

            speak to me in the easy way you always used. Wear no faced

             air of solemnity or sorrow.... I am waiting for you... for an

              internal... somewhere near just around the corner. All is well.

                                                                   Henry Scott Holland

           We know that the soul survives the body and that being

             set free from the bars of the body, it sees with clear glaze

               those things which before dwelling in the body, it could

                not see.

                                                     ST. Ambrose 

                               GOD BLESS YOU PATRICK!

               I consider that what we suffer at this present time

             cannot be compared at all with the glory that is

              going to be revealed to us.

                                                         Romans 8:18

          "The mountains and hills may crumble, but my love

           for you will never end, I will keep forever my promise

            of peace." So says the Lord who have you.

                                                             Isaiah 54:10

            I tell my patients," Death alters relationship; it does

            not sever them. The physical body is gone but the

             personal relationship lives on inside you."

                                                                    Edie Devers

           Death is the not the end, it is simply walking out of

           the physical form and into the spirit realm, which is our

           true home. It's going back home.

                                                           Stephen Christopher

                        Death is just a change in lifestyles.

                                                                     Stephen Levine

  MAY GOD EMBRACE YOU WITH ETERNAL LIFE

                                               WE MISS YOU!

            Pain is the source of compassion, and compassion shifts

          our perspective on pain which free us from the fear of death.

                                       Maggie Ross, In Creation Spirituality,

                                                       Sept- Oct 1992

             My mother and sister must be very happy to be home with

              God and I am sure their love and prayers are always with

                me. When I go home to God, for death is nothing else

                 but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken

                  for all eternity.

                                                              Mother Teresa

             I think death is a tremendous adventure... a gateway into

              a new life, in which you have further powers, deeper joys,

                and wonderful horizons.

                                                      Dr Leslie d. Weatherhead,

                                                      quoted in Life Begins At Death, 

                                                                                  1969

                   We are not human beings having a spiritual

                     experience. We are spiritual beings having a 

                      human experience.

                                                     Pierre Teilhand De Chardin