A dear friend is dying. He is actually a friend of my mother's and she is terribly sad. Her heart breaks for his wife, who waits with his children while he prepares for his next journey and they stay behind to grieve and manage, somehow, without his presence. It is too late to call and talk about his life and who he has been in theirs. That time will come.

I don't know him well, having just barely gotten to visit at length on a late summer evening the night before we packed up my Mom's house and moved her away from her hometown. These were dear friends, who went to every Florida every fall, to play golf and enjoy the sun while Wyoming's winter raged and then to return to Wyoming in the spring. Their mountain home was always full of family and friends and they were the consummate host and hostess.

Though they lived outside of town, often a visit into the grocery store or to pick up a prescription would mean that mom would have a chance to have lunch or coffee and visit about the comings and goings of her children and theirs. They were caring and kind, and watched out for Mom as only old friends can.

I knew the wife better than the husband, but what I knew of him was a bit intimidating. He was a huge man and seemed to fill a room as he entered. It wasn't just his frame or his voice...it was the force of his personality. The phrase "large and in charge" was written with him in mind.

For all of that, I knew he was a generous individual and had a brilliant mind. The aforementioned evening allowed me to understand who he was and where he had come from in much more depth, and I admired his character and strength even more by the end of the night. That he will leave a legacy to his children, I have no doubt. I count it a grace of God that I got to know him, and to see a glimpse of the man who was not weakened by illness but still a force of nature.

Go with God dear one...till we can have dinner once more at a bigger table...maybe even built from logs :)