Do you remember the days of the great ocean liners when a voyage to the other side of the world meant months of separation, and the hundreds of coloured streamers that formed the last physical link between those departing and their loved ones who remained behind, gradually breaking as the ship moved away? They used to call that the Last Goodbye, and for most people it was a deeply emotional experience, mixing the sadness of parting with the excitement of what lay ahead. For people of faith that’s what the death of a loved one is, the separating of that fragile link that binds us together, and will one day be renewed, never to be broken again. It reminds us that Goodbye originally was God be with you which, with the passage of time, became God be wi ye and eventually our modern Good bye.