All good things…… All good things come to an end; unfortunately this includes people, events, and sometimes places. Some people are just people, we interact with them and life goes on. While others are a part of our life, when they are gone it is like a piece is missing that we now somehow have to function – much less live - without. Sometimes the lost of a loved one also marks a turning point in your life, not necessarily because of there lost, but events happening all at the time same. When my (adopted) grandfather past away a decade ago (1996) it was a start of my life taking off and changing direction - I return to California to live and started work at a growing company, where I have been working for the last 10 years. 2003 was a different story, my mom died after battling cancer for 8 years; it was the same year I took dad to the Grand Canyon which was the last place he wanted to see before he died. In 2004 we moved to Texas, and had a baby girl the following year, a year after that just before her first birthday dad past away. When we lose a person we try to cope with the hole that is left behind, the void that now exists from their departure from our lives. While doing this (at least at first), you usually hear a 100 people say “I am sorry”, followed by a dozen or so folks saying “if you need any help, just ask.” Neither of these statements are really useful and don’t help you feel any better. For starters, I already know who I need to ask for assistance and hearing sorry all the time doesn’t really make me feel better. It would be better to hear “I am happy for have known him/her” or better yet, just be there for me in my time of need. Once you manage to get through the ordeal, there is the healing process and trying to explain to anyone outside the family what these people were like and what they meant to you is nearly impossible. It’s like the northern California, not that San Francisco stuff, but the actual northern coast of California. A place where you have rolling hills of vineyards, giving way to redwoods, and finally ending with the sound of the Pacific Ocean pounding the rocky shores. You have the scenery, the smells, the atmosphere, and the people from this little spot of heaven. A place that cannot be fully described in a few words and a postcard doesn’t simply work, if you have never been there, you won’t get it. Nick was the same way, as was dad (and art, and mom, and grandpa, and grandma) – you had to experience them to appreciate them, and simple words won’t do them justice. Gone are these people – my friends and family, them not being here too experience things to come and the joys ahead is as painful as them being gone. I know life will go on, but with missing pieces that are like slowly healing wounds. The toughest part is yet to come when I have to explain to the next generation who these people were and what made them special.
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