Not only tears to be dried but stains to be scoured

[soso]

Lewis, grieving the death of his wife, Joy:

What does it matter how this grief of mine evolves or what I do with it? 

What does it matter how I remember her or whether I remember her at all? 

None of these alternatives will either ease or aggravate her past anguish.

Her past anguish. 

How do I know that all her anguish is past? 

I never believed before—I thought it immensely improbable—that the faithfulest soul could leap straight into perfection

and peace /the moment () death has rattled in the throat.

It would be wishful thinking with a vengeance [to take up that belief now].

H. was a splendid thing; a soul straight, bright, and tempered like a sword.

But not a perfected saint.

A sinful woman /married to a sinful man; two of God’s patients, not yet cured.

I know () there are not only tears to be dried but stains to be scoured.

The sword will be made even brighter.

But oh God, tenderly, tenderly.

* scour (CLEAN) ... to remove dirt from something by rubbing it hard with something rough:

From A Grief Observed
Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

A Grief Observed. Copyright © 1961 by N. W. Clerk, restored 1996 C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Preface by Douglas H. Gresham copyright © 1994 by Douglas H. Gresham. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works. Copyright © 2003 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.