I said good-bye to a friend today

January 26, 2024 by Susan Sutton 4 Comments

“You have been my friend,” replied Charlotte. “That in itself is a tremendous thing.”

– E. B. White

I said good-bye to a friend today. I can still see it…

I in my screen space sitting upright surrounded by light and plants and life,

she in hers, horizontal on her bed, face half in view, cloth banding her head.

She looks like a French sailor, I think, mistaking scarf for stockinged hat.

The things we think when not wanting to think.

We talk of many things but mostly of love in meandering ways

    of the ones we love, how are yours? how are mine?

    of the One we have come to love most of all

    of the reasons we love each other

    of why we can love at all…

She closes her eyes for a moment, a nod to the waning body she now indwells.

She looks beautiful, I think, her face in repose, her eyes closed to the space she occupies

    and I let tears slip into this closing space between us

Eternity nudges. Reminds us. We both know we’ll meet again in its mystery. Yes, we say. This is true.

But still…

this is not like other good-byes in other spaces when we embraced and released and turned away to good-bye another, grab a suitcase, catch a bus or a train or a plane…unseeing

the fragility of the moment…unheeding

the possibility of not meeting again in this world. No…

this good-bye is luminous with seeing and heeding and so is gentled into another kind of release.

This moment is a gift that You have given, Father of gifts,

   and I thank You.

I suggest a hymn, one of my favorites, and so we listen together, eyes closed, souls opened, 

  letting words we’d like to say rest in the words we hear,

  letting truth wash over us like waves of an ocean,

  letting Love that never fails be our final word.

“Good-bye” she says before we click the button.

I can’t say it just yet.

“Good-bye” she says again, eyes closed, smile gentled.

“Good-bye,” I say to a friend today.

And in the mystery of life and death, in the unfolding of what it all means, of what You mean by it all,

   this I know because I know You, Loving Father God…

   my friend and I will see each other again.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39