There are many occasions when condolences are needed due to a death. There are also several ways of expressing condolence. You can send flowers, a gift, or a sympathy message. 

The word “condolence” comes from the Latin “condolere,” meaning “to suffer together.” Sometimes the dictionary lists the word “pity” as a synonym, but “comfort,” “commiseration,” “sympathy,” and “consolation” are better synonyms. It really means acknowledging a loss, showing sympathy, and empathizing with someone.

A dear student’s brother has recently passed away. The whole family is going through a hard time.

It’s times like these when we cling to those glimmers of hope and promise that we find amidst all the sorrow and pain.

And here is what I feel like offering to her… A poem from Henry van Dyke

Gone From My Sight

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, “There, she is gone.”

Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me — not in her.

And, just at the moment when someone says, “There, she is gone,” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”

And that is dying…