I was travelling on Sept 5th to the same place. The place 7 years back, when I was leaving the airport to the office I got a call from my father-in-law on my brother-in-law’s passing. There are places in life you will not forget and that particular bend in the road with trees will always be a sad reminder of the tragedy of Sept 5th when I heard the news. A couple of days back we were watching as a family King Richard. After the movie, my daughter was keen to try tennis. That is when I handed over my brother-in-law’s racket to him and we remembered him. After 7 long years as a family, we experience grief flashbacks and eyes well up. I was reading Guide to the Good Life on Kindle on my way back on the flight. I was on chapter 12 incidentally and that was about grief – On Vanquising Tears with Reason, there is an exchange between Seneca (a stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome) and Polybius who was grieving the death of his brother. Seneca advises ” Let your tears flow, but let them also cease, let deepest sighs be drawn from your chest, but let them also find an end.” Although it might not be possible to eliminate grief from our lives, it is possible, Seneca thinks, to take steps to minimize the amount of grief we experience throughout a lifetime. And given that such steps exist, we ought to take them. I recently picked up a book “Wonderland of Words”. I regarded my brother-in-law as one who was extremely proficient in the use of the English language at ease. I reminisce how during conversation he uses appropriate words for the situations. He will remain as a person from whom I learned the simplicity of communication.
You left without warning, gone so fast, now all we have are memories of our past. The wheels of time will keep turning and we will keep you in our hearts.
