To remember me
The day will come when my body will lie upon a white
sheet neatly tucked under four corners of a mattress located
in a hospital busily occupied with the living and the dying.
At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain
has ceased to function and that, for all intents and
purposes, my life has stopped.
When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by
the use of a machine. And don't call this my deathbed. Let it be called the
Bed of Life, and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.
Give my eyes to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face or love
in the eyes of a woman. Give my heart to a person whose own heart has
caused nothing but endless days of pain. Give my blood to the teenager who
was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his
grandchildren play. Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to
exist from day to day. Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve
in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.
Explore every corner of my brain. Take my cells, if necessary, and let them
grow so that, someday, a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a
deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window.
Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers
grow and blossom.
If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses and all
prejudice against the others around me.
Give my sins to the devil. Give my soul to God.
If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to
someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.
- Robert N. Test
