Today I will say goodbye to an old friend from high school, whose passing from a long illness causes this sad day. I know what to expect, and I know what I need to do. I will find his widow, tell her that I AM deeply sorry and try in my simple way to encourage her and her children to move on best they can with his memory.
I will look around the room and hope I can find someone I know, maybe sit with them for a short while as we compare notes of our mutual friend and the shock of his passing.
Some of us will be in the room out of sadness, some out of curiosity and some out of a sense of respect for someone they once knew. I will not matter who is who or why they are there, just that they came.
The book will be closed on my friend and old chapters of it will then become revised as we shake the cobwebs of our memories, he will be enhanced and his stories will become part of the mourner's search for something to hold onto.
Today is yesterday, 08-19-19 as I write this and will be history before you read it. I am doing it this way to measure my anticipation of the events as they do unfold. I know that one of the hardest things for people to do is visit at a wake; what do you say to the survivor, how do you say it, where else must you go? These are real and valid fears that most of us go through and somehow we come out of it still standing, maybe even feeling better.
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