HOW TO SAY GOODBYE!

Sweet friend Mona is making a one day trip to Baton Rouge today to visit with her long time good friends Mark & Betty.  Mona found out this week that Mark has been ill since June and they now have diagnosed him with an aggressive form of cancer.  Mark is in hospice care already. 

Mona has her grands and I have mine, but we have done some messaging late at night after things have gotten quiet for the day.  We have been discussing that this will be her last visit with Mark.  How do you say "Goodbye"?

Frankly--I am probably not the one to ask since I practically left town in the dark to avoid painful goodbyes.  It was unbelievably painful to leave my home of so many years--and I just did not think I could bear any long and protracted "Goodbyes".  Knowing that I would be returning for visits--since I have family still in Ruston and of course many sweet friends---I tried to tell myself it was really not Goodbye.  I told Camille yesterday that the fact is that people go on with their lives---and when you are not there to participate--you loose the continuity of day to day involvement.  That does not change my love for them--nothing will ever change that.

I have had occasion to say those final goodbyes---so my advice is to tell that loved one how important they are to you---and your love for them----enjoy sweet memories together---and leave them with a warm hug and a smile on your face.  It is not unlike my leaving Ruston---you will see each other again---there may be some time to lapse before that meeting--but your love will sustain those sweet memories.  It is truly better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.