Good-bye can be rough. Years ago, I had a wonderful and wise, delightfully open and caring platonic lady friend. For a couple of years we had great discussions, shared many laughs and moments of caring, concern and discovery. Her home was a warm and welcome haven to me and an island of sanity in an otherwise insane world. We argued determinedly over various things but never grew angry with each other and she taught me much about things I had never realized and in exchange she learned much about other things from my lifestyle, which she had not experienced.
She was married and her husband was my friend and used to his delightfully outgoing wife having an eclectic and eccentric group of friends about, knowing that she would never stray – and she did not. He was yin to her yang. He was quiet and strong to her extrovert and emotional.
I loved them both. I spun into their lives like a loose electron and orbited about their center mass, full of questions and dreams and youthful energy and they patiently listened to them all, correcting but never criticizing, encouraging but never disparaging.
When, after several years, they chose to move out of state, I was devastated. I tried hard to get them to stay, but they had a place to go and wished to do so. Many a night I drove by their house when they were asleep and parked across the street, recalling the warmth and comfort I had found there and mourning their inevitable departure and I was crushed when they finally left.
For months, even years, afterward, I would drive by their old place from time to time and think about all of the good times I had there and still feel their absence keenly and long to find some couple who could replace them, but never did. Contact by phone and mail is not the same.
In time, we drifted apart, but I never forgot them. Even now, decades later, I might find myself in the general area of their home and drive by, older, wiser, no longer the young kid I was when we met, and think back fondly of their freely extended love and care which had no hidden agenda and no secret alternatives.
Saying good-bye to some people is so very, very hard and, sometimes, one never forgets.