Kathleen Rose Kerrigan

March 5, 1960 ~ March 14, 1997

When tomorrow starts without me,

And I'm not there to see,

If the sun should rise and find your eyes

All filled with tears for me;

I wish so much you wouldn't cry

The way you did today,

While thinking of the many things,

We didn't get to say.

I know how much you love me,

As much as I love you,

And each time that you think of me,

I know you'll miss me too;

But when tomorrow starts without me,

Please try to understand,

That an angel came and called my name,

And took me by the hand,

And said my place was ready,

In Heaven far above,

And that I'd have to leave behind

All those I dearly love.

But as I turned to walk away,

A tear fell from my eye

For all my life, I'd always thought,

I didn't want to die.

I had so much to live for,

So much left yet to do,

It seemed almost impossible,

That I was leaving you.

I thought of all the yesterdays,

The good ones and the bad,

I thought of all the love we shared,

And all the fun we had.

If I could relive yesterday,

Just even for a while,

I'd say good-bye and kiss you

And maybe see you smile.

But then I fully realized,

That this could never be,

For emptiness and memories,

Would take the place of me.

And when I thought of worldly things,

I might miss come tomorrow,

I thought of you, and when I did,

My heart was filled with sorrow.

But when I walked through Heaven's gates,

I felt so much at home.

When God looked down and smiled at me,

From His great golden throne,

He said, "This is eternity,

And all I've promised you."

Today your life on earth is past,

But here life starts anew.

I promise no tomorrow,

But today will always last,

And since each day's the same way

There's no longing for the past.

You have been so faithful,

So trusting and so true.

Though there were times

You did some things

You knew you shouldn't do.

But you have been forgiven

And now at last you're free.

So won't you come and take my hand

And share my life with me?

So when tomorrow starts without me,

Don't think we're far apart,

For every time you think of me,

I'm right here, in your heart.

- Amanda M. Coyle -

When I first did this poem, I could not find who wrote the poem so I listed it as 'unknown'.  In the years since I have had several people write me telling me that thought one or the other person had written the poem but I could never verify the names given to me so I left the poem as 'unknown'.  Just recently I was contacted by Amanda Coyle, who is the author of the poem.  Below, in her own words, is a background on the writing of the poem:

The date of the copyright of the poem is Jan 31st, 1993. I have suffered many losses in my life that are extremely close to home, I lost basically everyone but my mother. After my dad, best friend, and grand mom died I wrote the poem to help me cope with death in specific the death of someone who I loved dearly. Like many people, I use it to help cope with death even to this day. My mother is a very very religious person and she always explained the crossing over process and how she saw it so I tied it in with the poem to give it as much as a positive effect it could have. It’s also how I imagined when I got to heaven would be, and I hope that one day when I pass away people will remember that poem and I could have a little message to people several millenniums from now.