DAME ELLEN'S WISH

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 54, 12 September 1928, Page 15

DAME ELLEN'S WISH

"NO FUNERAL GLOOM, MY I DEAKS" Many messages of sympathy wero received by the family of Dame Ellen Terry on the day of her funeral, says sin English Exchange. They came from friends of a long and wonderful lifetime. Apart from a white notice on the gate, there was nothing at the house to attract attention. No blinds were drawn; no ono in black appeared. Tho reason was that tho relatives and friends wero faithfully carrying out one of Dame Ellen's last wishes. It was expressed in the white, notice on tho gate, a remarkable and touching little document. This was how it read: — No funeral gloom, my dears, when I am gone; : - . Corpse gaaings, tears, black l-nimeut, graveyard grimness; Think of me as withdrawn into the dimness, Yours still, you Mine. Remember all the best of. our past moments, and forget the rest, And so to where I wait, come gently on. And below. — I should wish my children, relatives, and friends, to observe this when I die.—E.T. Dame Ellen could not havt? desired anything brighter or more lovely than the scene at her •home during the morning. In the .brilliant sunshine, with this blooms in the garden at the height of their beauty, it looked a dream house. Those friends who went in and out of the house wove their usual bright summer clothes. Few country communities could, in the passing of a celebrity, have felt such a deep sense of personal loss as has Tenterden, for Dame Ellen was loved by all;, from the- youngest to tho oldest inhabitant. It was the children especially whom she took to her heart. She knew almost everyone in the place, and. her kindnesses to them were innumerable. Her great popularity is reflected in one small fact. A postcard shop had a large- stock of photographs of Dame Ellen and her home. Since she became ill every card has been sold.