Today marks the 153rd anniversary of Charles Dickens's death. His daughter Mamie later wrote of it in her book, My Father As I Recall Him:
"The room in which my dear father reposed for the last time was bright with the beautiful fresh flowers which were so abundant at this time of the year, and which our good neighbours sent to us so frequently. The birds were singing all about and the summer sun shone brilliantly.
'And may there be no sadness of farewell
When I embark.
For though when from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.’
"Those exquisite lines of Lord Tennyson’s seem so appropriate to my father, to his dread of good-byes, to his great and simple faith, that I have ventured to quote them here."
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