You learn to write by writing. I'm writing a eulogy here. If you don't care for this stuff, come back when I'm in a cheery mood.
One of the prices you pay for having friends is losing them. A college friend, some one I have known for fourty years, is dying. I sat with him for a while yesterday. Consciousness seems to be a place he just visits occasionally, not somewhere he spends much time. I don't know if he will even remember that I was there, yet, the hours I sat quietly beside his bed don't seem a waste. I don't want to go all woo-woo mystic, but he has the same shadow on him that my husband's dad had just before he passed.
It helps a lot to have a firm conviction that the end of this life is not the end of everything, and that I will see him again on the other side. He will be out of pain and free from fear. He will be just as young and strong and full of energy as he was when we first met. And oh, what a supercharged dynamo of energy he was! If there's anything to astrology, he would prove it, because he was Leo to the tonails. His personality filled a room, and he was the life of any party. He was charming, sexy, witty, and fiercely intelligent. And like any male lion, he was a bit lazy and ego-centric. At times he could even be an asshole, but for those of us who love him, he is OUR asshole and we love him still. The earth will spin slower without his long stride to kick it on.
