James R. Hardt, Laid to Rest

The ashes of  Vietnam-era Navy veteran and exemplary public librarian , Jim Hardt, were interred at Lake View cemetery in Libertyville, Illinois on Wednesday, June 27.

Readings chosen by family and friends included Robert Burns's Epitaph on a Friend 

AN HONEST man here lies at rest,

As e’er God with his image blest;

The friend of man, the friend of truth,

The friend of age, and guide of youth:

Few hearts like his, with virtue warm’d,

Few heads with knowledge so inform’d:

If there ’s another world, he lives in bliss;

If there is none, he made the best of this.

And

i carry your heart’ by E.E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)