NOT GONE..... JUST A MOMENT AWAY

My cool cuz Steph lost her father-in-law yesterday. Papa Ed, as she called him, won his long war on cancer. I say “won” because he no longer has to endure the medication, the withering away of his body, and the suffering his family shared with him. Those who feel the emptiness of a world without him, eventually won't remember the last few months, although they are obviously what comes to mind today. Those who struggled with the unspeakable pain and the impossible task of preparing for his departure will ultimately remember the smiles, the laughs and the love that came with knowing him.

People grieve every day from a loved one passing. It started me to thinking....

Will Papa Ed really be gone?

He won't be to his wife, whom he had known since before teenagerdom. Their lives together intertwined as one. Every sight, every smell, everything in the house, everything on earth will remind her of him. She will have wondrous dreams that he is still with her. She will feel his touch everywhere she goes. She will not stop adoring this man despite the small issue of his absence. He is not gone, he is just a moment away.

He won't be to his son, who was also his close friend, business partner, and the reason he did a lot of what he did. It won't be easy to move on to a life without his Dad, but he has a lifetime of memories to embrace and reflect on in times of need. I can't help but think how lucky Brandon is to have had so many years with a Father who cared so deeply. For his son, he is not gone, he is just a moment away.

Ask many who have lost a special someone what memory will be treasured the most, and you will undoubtedly get many different answers. We don't touch everyone's life in the same way, but once we do, that affect will carry on and on and on...

We may be mortal, but to those we leave behind, we are always just a moment away....