"There comes a time... when we want nothing to ever change. A time when everything seems perfect and we couldn't ask for any better. A time when our friends are around us and it almost feels like they'll always be there. I think we fool ourselves into believing that. I know I did. And it's easy to pretend that we're right and everything will be fine, right up until the moment when everything goes wrong.
We may have aspirations and dreams, hopes and goals, but at any moment in time all that can come crashing down around us. We're trained to fight against dangers many can hardly fathom, and to defeat monsters that are horrible and beyond our understanding. But what's really beyond our understanding is the simple things, isn't it. It's no darkness that kills us. No monsters or evil beings. It's the very things that make us human. For all our intelligence, creativity, ingenuity, strength and wisdom... it's the little things we forget.
It's the little things that we need to hold on to in times of sadness. A smile, a hug, an extra pancake. That's what makes life precious. That's why we can never forget. Someone like him. Someone who would be your friend and, not really say much, but you would feel like you could always count on him. They may ask why something like this happened, why any higher power might allow it. There is no right answer. It wasn't simply allowed. There was nothing anyone could do, and we only have ourselves to blame. Not because we didn't care enough. It's not because we should have cried more, or prayed more, or given more money. None of that would have changed anything.
We say that it's not goodbye, but just farewell. We say it like it means anything, but goodbye and farewell are the same thing. I'll see you later. Auf Wiedersehen. Until we meet again. Sayonara. It's all the same thing. It's all something to say that we'll see the person again. Sometimes, however, you have to accept that you may never see them again. That face is gone from your life. It will not return. And that's the hardest thing to come to terms with. Absolute loss.
So I won't say goodbye. I won't say any of that. And though we're gathered here to say farewell to a dear friend today, I cannot. Because I don't think we will see him again. There will never be another like him. Irreplaceable. Never another like you, my dear friend. We cannot follow you where you go. All we can do now is remember you. Forever, you will live on in our memories. Though we wish you were here, it is in vain. It's not goodbye. It is eternity of suffering your absence. It is an apology that we can not be with you. It is only I'm sorry, and I'll remember you. It is the sum of everything that is pain and sorrow. A world without you... well, it feels almost like a world left without its creator.
Ren...
Your name is not carved in stone. Not written on paper, or in any electronic file. It is written somewhere we can be sure it will stay. Everything crumbles and rots and degrades and dies. Even memory fades in time. Your name is written in the only thing that is eternal. Our souls. And so, in a way, you live on in each of us, and in the spirit that unites us. And in such will you live on forever.
And you didn't say goodbye, so I won't either. Because, as long as you don't say goodbye you haven't really left, have you? So you're still with us, and you will be for all eternity. You will be with us forever. Thank you for the time you spent with us. So I won't say goodbye. I'll just say thank you.
Thank you."
Nora walked away from the grave, leaving behind the pink rose.