Iris Doreen Chandler 1924-1999

Iris Doreen Chandler

Born: 08 October 1924 Swindon. UK

Died: 05 April 1999 Swindon. UK

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide!
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour;
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

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Iris, mum to myself and Mark
and devoted wife to Harold.
Was one of five siblings and born in Swindon
where she spent the whole of her life.

As a young girl she worked as a sewing machinist for
Comptons in Swindon until she married Harold
and settled into life as a devoted wife and later mother.

Unfortunately she could not have her own children
so adopted Mark and then myself two years later.
She loved to bake and looking after house.
Also devoted to her own mother, Minnie.

After Dads retirement she enjoyed watching
hours of TV including the cricket and snooker,
while dealing with her own ill health.

She passed away in 1999 after also battling breast cancer.

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Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped into the next room.

I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

Call me by my old familiar name,
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.

Put no difference in your tone,
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was,
Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.

It it the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,
Just around the corner.

All is well.

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