I was married before many years ago for ten years. Don and I were good friends first then we became a bit more. But when you lose a child, something happens between couples and sometimes no matter how strong you think your love might be- it can’t always triumph in the end. We have kept in touch over the years and he never remarried.

He usually calls on Christmas and this year, I didn’t hear from him. He had just undergone another open heart surgery in July and called me soon after but then nothing.

When I thought about him the other day, I felt strange about it- not connected I guess and I knew in my heart he was gone. I don’t know how I knew, I just did. I called his phone but all i reached was dead air.

Tonight, I searched for his obit on the web and found it. He died, in September. Although he was a bad boy- a typical hippie when I met him, he was a kind soul and only started going to the dark side after the death of our son. But I think he never accepted the death and who could blame him for that. My hope is that in the end, he found peace with God and now he and Jeremy are reunited and he has peace at last.

Goodbye Don, I am sorry I didn’t get to say a proper goodbye to you. I will miss you and I pray you are wrapped around our little boy right now and catching up on all you missed out on. I will miss you old friend, you should have lived longer than just 58 years.