https://youtu.be/SUFSB2plwzM
In memory of Audrey W.
2001-2017
"You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason."
—Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.
"It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime."
—Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
I'll never know what anguish you went through, or what led you to take that final, irreversible step. Perhaps it's best that way.
Farewell, my friend. My only regret is that we didn't have more time together. Thank you for touching my life.
With love,
Spencer