CFIDS/ME Patient Memorial List - updated site and link

Today, at my personal blog, I received a comment from Diane Rose, Volunteer Webmaster of CFIDS/ME Patient Memorial List, advising me they have completed a major redesign of the site and to update the link in my sidebar - which I have now done.

For readers here who suffer from ME/CFIDS, or know of someone who does, please note that to submit additional names for the list the Memorial site would need to be contacted with, if possible, the name, dates of birth and death, place and cause of death, and any additional information you feel is appropriate.  The following is an excerpt from the site:

By compiling this list, we hope to make people more fully aware of the seriousness of CFIDS/ME. Medical communities, media and governments understand neither how debilitating this illness is nor how those with it suffer. The United States National Institutes of Heath are not keeping track of the morbidity and mortality rates, although many have died and many more will if more is not done. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claim there have not been deaths reported to them. If you know of a friend or family member who had CFIDS/ME and has passed on, please help us in our quest to document the seriousness of this illness.

We are grateful for the help of William Young, who began the list and who compiled a great number of names on this list.  Many of these people died of secondary illnesses attributed to CFIDS/ME. Medical doctors have pointed out that excruciating pain is the foremost reason that others have chosen to take their own lives.  The majority of these patients did not have the medical care they needed; they suffered unremitting pain with little hope of relief or comfort. We acknowledge their suffering and hope that they have not died in vain.
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Here are two poems by unknown authors that I found on the internet:


Miss Me..But Let Me Go

When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me,
I want no rites in a gloom filled room,
Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little..but not too long,
and not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared;
Miss me..but let me go.

For this is a journey we all must take,
And each must go alone.
It's all part of the Master's plan,
A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick of heart,
Go to the friends we know;
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds
Miss me..but let me go.

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"Come to Me"

God saw you getting tired
A cure was not to be,
So he put his arms around you
And he whispered,"Come to Me."

With tearful eyes we watched you
And saw you fade away,
Although we loved you dearly
We could not make you stay.

Many time we thought of you
Many times we cried,
If love alone could save you,
You would have never died.

A golden heart stopped beating
Your tender hands at rest,
God took you home to prove to us
He only takes the best.