Chapter one- The Ross-a-tron Returns.
Ross slowly clasped his hands, fitted them together like a small jigsaw and took a sip of his lemonade. He though of previous days when he used to chat all day and all night, meet with friends, work merely for the joy of working and still have his youth.
Forty years had passed since those happy days and, now that his beloved wife, Rachel had died and his three sons, Joey Chandler and Ross Junior (named after his two best friends and himself) , had all left to go to university, or, "Uni," as they liked to call it, Ross spent a large proportion of his day reminiscing and contemplating the moments in his life when he was so close to loosing it all, and the moments in his life when he so nearly embraced life with open arms and greeted pure jubilation.
Ross began to have a sort of internal conversation with himself and thought of the good times he had when he was young and the many happy days he had spent in the park with Rachel, in the library with his good friend Chandler (who had been his best man at three of his four weddings), the family meals he used to eat with his parents, Monica and his father's beloved car, the protests he had attended with his friend phoebe (who later became a non-number accountant and who also became a rather poor non-number accountant) and the numerous hours he had spent in Burger King with his relatively unclean friend Joey.
Ross tossed, turned and rolled in his bed and tried to push the thoughts of the past clearly from his head but failed and so decided to turn the light on to read through a few pages of his diary; he had kept this particular leather-bound, hardback and relatively valuable book since his childhood but it was only after the dispersion of his favourite group of friends that he began to find a purpose for it- to record his happiest days.
He suddenly felt a wave of tiredness cross him and felt like the sand on a beach being constantly worn down by the tide of life. He thought for a second, then shook his head and then said to himself:
"There's no point in you attempting to go to sleep; you'll only lie there, think and think and think repetitively and in a constant circle." He shook his head vigorously and then coughed- a side effect of his increasing age. "No." He said this particular word slightly more defiantly than the previous twenty-five. "No, I must think and read and write; I may be old, decrepit and slightly wrinkled (he always remained in a sort of outer-denial considering his age but knew deep down that the curtain was soon to close on his production). No, I will write an entry that I must finish, the final entry." He coughed once more and picked up the dusty accumulation of paper that lay on his bedside table. He squinted slightly as the sun began to rise slowly but surely on the far side of Burley Hill, which lay opposite his bedroom window and reached for his spectacles. He then opened the book and began to read the words which he had written around thirty years ago.
Twenty minutes later, Ross was in a sleep that led to a blissful death. I'm not really sue if anyone will ever know about that diary and/or whether anyone will choose to read it but let us hope that it did. I don't think anyone will ever be sure about what exactly happened in Ross' life and whether he ever did stop crying every time he saw, heard or even thought of a proposal. All that the world will know is that this letter was tucked into the diary shortly before Ross passed away.
"I am happy. Please do not grieve for me, but try to have a life that was as happy and fulfilled as mine. I may not know who you are if you are reading this, but l sincerely hope that you will know me intimately after reading the diary.
I would hope that whoever finds this can tell my beloved children that I love and care for them all. If it is you who have found this boys, do not be sad, I am with your mother now and you have one another; have children and be happy.
Doctor Ross Geller.
P.S. if you want to know what went through my mind as I passed into the arms of the next life, please refer to the diary."
The front cover of Ross' diary reads,
"Live, be happy, and marry...more than once!"