Thoughts for a Friend

A while back I wrote how there are no guarantees on how long we have. I was recently reminded of this painfully.  A good friend passed away. Not an old sick woman, but a vibrant, healthy lady barely entering middle age. Had a headache, was in the hospital that night, and cut off life support two days later. With a very young daughter.

What do you tell someone who will never really get to know her mom? I can tell her:

• Your mom understood what I wrote in that post. Every day I talked to her she lived that day.
• Your mom made some of the best cafe we had at work.
• You mom was always willing to go out and try a weird new restaurant only I would come up with.
• Your mom talked about you incessantly. Once you were born. not a day went by when I would not hear some story about you.
• Your mom loved special peanuts — “Japoneses” — coated in a hard shell imported from Brasil. She was always scared she would run out of them before the next shipment.
• Your mom shared those peanuts generously with everyone who stopped by her desk.
• Your mom had a sharp sarcastic wit which could capture my attention anytime we talked.
• Your mom was a hard worker, often coming in one day on her Christmas break to cut the final checks of the year.
• Your mom made me laugh after a week when I had quit the job where we both worked. I was under the stress of a new position and I receive an email from her, “Ok, the joke’s over. Come back now.”
• Your mom called me several times after that, showing me how good it was and how easy it was not to lose contact with good friends.
• Your mom made my life much richer for knowing her.
• Your mom…I will miss her, but one thing I can leave you with is that she enjoyed life while she had it.

–Al-