This week has been one of the strangest I have encountered in a very long time and has left me feeling quite sad, confused and to a large degree very depressed.
Sadly I had to attend the funeral of a very dear and close friend who, at the same age as myself, succumbed to cancer after a very short but ultimately courageous fight, at the end of March. I saw him a few weeks before he passed and we talked, all too briefly to be sure, and it was is we had never been apart.
We had been friends for about 36 years, meeting on our first day at university and keeping in touch despite the distance between us ever since. We would talk every so often and meet on occasions and yet it never felt as though we were apart and could pick up where we left off.
Bizarrely our career paths sort of shadowed one another although with slight nuances between them.
Now the earth has borne my friend away and I feel like I have abandoned him even though my own beliefs tell me that he is in safe hands.
The funeral service we held for him was full of rejoicing and thankfulness for the life he had lived and the lives he had touched and the contributions he had made. Everyone who was there had only wonderful things to say about him and I was happy he was remembered fondly by so many.
I don't think I previously understood the concept of 'Anam Cara' - the soul kinship that some feel until this moment but I do now and my heart feels torn in two by the loss of the brother of my soul and I pray that you rest peacefully till we meet again.
