the show must go on ...

the years may wipe out many things, but some they wipe out never, like memories of those happy times, when we were all together...

So the month has come around and we're all groping around for each other again ...to share, maybe grieve - all in our own ways - the reality that you are not in our midst. In this month - friends, relatives, well wishers, colleagues, prayers, funny anecdotes, chilling war stories - have all come together to put together the grand old jigsaw puzzle that is you ... Funnily, it seems as if in your absence, we got to know you more than when you were right here with us. At least I did.

Undiluted. Thats the word that was on my mind when I looked out of the aeroplane window and thought of you as I made my way back from my first visit to see you this year . Still so undiluted.
Over the years, as life became from simple to complex .. I had begun to lose belief that one could be stoic yet passionate, successful yet grounded, firm yet benevolent, principled and still popular ... and then, not let that popularity go to your head. Sometime during that trip, and the next, and then the next, you re-instilled that faith back in me... that there can be happiness in simplicity and wisdom in reticence; that giving does not need to be equated with receiving and that keeping friends requires a lot more dedication than making them. I'm not sure how you found the time, energy and perseverance to achieve all that you have in your lifetime but as I discover more and more the person that you were, I know that down here your show must go on ...