Malachy McCourt Quotes

To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

The death of kings can be recited, but not of one's child.

Talking about the loss of my parents... that was really, really difficult to go through.

Nothing is ever quite right, is it, after a parent dies? No matter how well things go, something always feels slightly off.

When you lose a child in an accident as I did, it's final - you're not caught in this longing for him, to search for him, knowing he's out there some place.

We are not programmed to bury our kids.

I lost my dad when I was younger, and I know what it's like to lose a beloved parent.

To lose a son under those circumstances - a violent death like my son went through, it just puts a burden on your heart.

You can't tell a 6-year-old your sister is going to die.

To a father, when a child dies, the future dies; to a child when a parent dies, the past dies.

I was very close to my mother, and her death, which left a gaping hole in my life, has been very difficult for me and my father in a lot of ways.

When you read about a car crash in which two or three youngsters are killed, do you pause to dwell on the amount of love and treasure and patience parents poured into bodies no longer suitable for open caskets?

Death is always and under all circumstances a tragedy, for if it is not, then it means that life itself has become one.

You're never prepared to lose anybody in your family.

Feeling funny in my mind, Lord I believe I'm fixing to die Well, I don't mind dying But I hate to leave my children crying Well, I look over yonder to that burying ground Look over yonder to that burying ground Sure seems lonesome, Lord, when the sun goes down

I didn't want to see them lower him into the ground in the spot he'd picked out with his dad, and I didn't want to see his parents sink to their knees in the dew-wet grass and moan in pain.

The death of a child occasions a passion of grief and frantic tears, such as your end, brother reader, will never inspire.

I've not really had a bad Christmas. Apart from serious things, like when my father died. He rather spoiled the party and I've never forgiven him for falling off the twig on Christmas Day.

What greater pain could mortals have than this: To see their children dead before their eyes?

All the times I have suddenly realized that my parents are dead, even now, it still surprises me, to exist in the world while that which made me has ceased to exist

My son, a perfect little boy of five years and three months, had ended his earthly life. You can never sympathize with me; you can never know how much of me such a young child can take away. A few weeks ago I accounted myself a very rich man, and now the poorest of all.

And my poor fool is hanged! No, no, no life! Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never! Pray you, undo this button.

When parents die, all of the partings of the past are reevoked with the realization that this time they will not return.

death had just shred a tear