a farewell note

now you're free, old friend. free of the suffering inflicted upon your flesh and bones for your entire life. free of the unbearable sorrow that ate away your soul until the end. free to reach a better place, to rejoin with those who are long gone, to earn your well deserved peace. 

i'd lie if i said that seeing you go doesn't leave me sad, because it does, and that sadness, albeit tearless, is beyond any reasoning. oddly enough though, i'm also happy. happy for you, old friend, now beyond pain or sorrow. i'm proud of being there, of being there by your side until the end, knowing that my presence was the only joy your fading life was still delivering. it was little, too little from my part. i wish i had heard more from you. i wish i had known you better. i wish i had tried harder to break the walls of silence you'd built around you many years before i was even born. you are gone now, though; and gone with you are all the stories of a long and hard life, all the words never muttered not even to the passing wind. we think we always have time, until it is to late and we realize that no matter how long we live, we are always running out of time. but those words, those stories, they are still with you; as it is my face, the last known face you saw at the end of all the things. may you remember them, the stories and my face, for one day i shall be with you again, and i'll want to hear all the stories of the world that will be no longer ours then. 

farewell, my friend.