If I should die before the rest of you,
Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone.
Nor, when I'm gone, speak in a Sunday voice,
But be the usual selves that I have known.
...
And I've got to understand
You must release the ones you love
And let go of their hand.
I try and cope the best I can
...
Joyce Irene Grenfell (née Phipps; 10 February 1910 – 30 November 1979) was an English actress, comedienne, monologist and singer-songwriter. Born in London, Joyce was the daughter of architect Paul Phipps (1880–1953), the grandson of Charles Paul Phipps and a second cousin of Ruth Draper, and an eccentric American mother, Nora Langhorne (1889–1955), the daughter of Chiswell Langhorne, an American railway millionaire. Nancy Astor, née Nancy Langhorne, was her mother's sister and Grenfell often visited her at Astor's home, Cliveden. Joyce Phipps grew up around money and privilege. She had a London childhood and considered herself a "townie". Joyce attended the Francis Holland School in Central London, and the Christian Science School, Clearview, in South Norwood, and then she was "finished" in Paris where she attended Mlle. Ozanne's finishing school at the age of 17. In 1927, she met Reginald Pascoe Grenfell (1903–1993); they were married two years later at St. Margaret's, Westminster; they remained married for 50 years (until her death). She made her stage debut in 1939 in the Little Revue. In 1942 she wrote what became her signature song, "I'm Going to See You Today.")
Death (If I Should Go)
If I should die before the rest of you,
Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone.
Nor, when I'm gone, speak in a Sunday voice,
But be the usual selves that I have known.
Weep if you must,
Parting is hell.
But life goes on,
So........ sing as well.
Progress everywhere today does seem to come so very heavily disguised as Chaos.
They look quite promising in the shop; and not entirely without hope when I get them back into my wardrobe. But then, when I put them on they tend to deteriorate with a very strange rapidity and one feels so sorry for them.
I was in the WRNS in 1943 stationed at Crosby Hall, Chelsea, waiting to be sent abroad. Joyce Grenfell came and entertained us with her songs and very funny monologues which made us laugh I worked as a Coder in Colombo for two years and have always remembered how she entertained us for over two hours that evening in spite of the London blitz.