Pass by! O pass me by!
Away, wild mask of Death!
I am still young!
Oh why destroy me with your breath?
Give me your hand, you lovely, tender child
I am your friend and bring no harm.
Have courage. See, I am not wild.
Now go to sleep upon my arm.
From... Schubert's 1817 suite Der Tod und das Mädchen.

Contrary to general belief, I am not very familiar with funeral decor. Death's don't normally take place in tombs, except in rare and unfortunate cases. The open air, the bottoms of rivers, halfway down sharks, any amount of bedrooms, yes - tombs, no. However, I have tried to make the place look a tad brighter by adding rainbows of colors but all the html codes, on some genetic level, seem to have re-invented themselves as gloomy greys, blacks, reds and purples. It seems they are just trying to get into the spirit of the thing.

FAVOURITE DEATH QUOTES:

"A lot of people, on the verge of Death, utter famous last words or stiffen into attitudes, as if the final stiffening in three days' time were not enough; they will have ceased to exist three days' hence, yet they still want to arouse admiration and adopt a pose and tell a lie with their last gasp."
Henri de Montherlant.

About the after life: "I've always liked the notion of meeting the great figures in history. Then I think, what if it's like high school and all the cool dead people don't want to hang out with me. Mozart will tell me he's busy, but then I'll see him out with Shakespeare and Lincoln."
- Niles Crane from the TV's Frasier.

"To sleep; perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of Death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil...."
- William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1.

"THE KIND OF DEATH WHO POSES AGAINST THE SKYLINE AND GETS LIT UP BY LIGHTNING FLASHES, DOESN'T TURN UP AT FIVE-AND-TWENTY PAST ELEVEN IF HE CAN POSSIBLY TURN UP AT MIDNIGHT."
Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man.

"All right, then, I'll say it: Dante makes me sick."
Lope Félix de Vega Carpio (1562-1635), Spanish dramatist and poet. On being informed he was about to meet Death.

"No, it is better not. She will only ask me to take a message to Albert."
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81), British statesman. On his Deathbed, declining an offer of a visit from Queen Victoria.

"Never go in against a Sicilian when Death is on the line!"
From the movie The Princess Bride.

"What happens if you get scared half to death twice ?"
Stephen Wright.

NON TIMETIS MESSOR