Dear Parvati,
Susan Bones died last week, giving her the dubious honor of being the first D.A. member to die since the battle so many years ago.
Susan was only 63, the same age I am. She was 45 years older than you when she died, but she was still too young. But then again, I guess it always feels like people are too young to die. There's never a good time to leave the world.
Her funeral was earlier today. Being the hero she was, the funeral had to take place at Hogwarts. Nowhere else was large enough to hold the crowd that wanted to pay their respects. So many people came, but only a fraction of us actually knew her well. We were the ones who knew her well enough to understand what struggles she had to overcome. Most people will never know how scared she was at Hogwarts, but how she refused to let it stop her.
So that's what we told the masses that came. We praised how brave she was, how she had lived a long life, how she really was a hero. And they clapped and nodded like they understood.
But they can't. None of us were good enough of speakers to make them understand who she really was. They all know here for the hero she was, but the D.A. knew her as the person she was.
I was only one of several people who gave the eulogy. I've only had to give one eulogy before, and that time, all I had to do was tell how much I missed you. This time, I had to try and make people know that Susan was just a normal person, happy sometimes, sad sometimes, and even lonely sometimes.
As sad as Susan's death is, it's nothing that I haven't encountered before. Your death and our parents' death hit me hard. Her death is tragic, but not painful. I'll remember her, visit her gravestone, but I'll be able to move on without much trouble.
Other than Susan's passing, life's been mostly the same. It's happy, but also wonderfully mundane. Now that School has started again, the grandchildren have mostly cleared out, the house is thankfully quieter. Now all I have to do is walk into me and Liam's bedroom to get some peace. before they went off to Hogwarts, I had to apparate to the graveyard to spend some time by myself.
I know that it's odd, but as much as I love my children and grandchildren, I enjoy the quiet too much to spend all day with them. I was always a little bit like that, but I think that your death and that sudden absence of noise in my life made me shun it a little too much. I guess it's something to work on, since I don't think that my grandchildren are going to get any quieter, and I do love to spend time with them.
I can't help but think that Susan's the first of us to go, but that it won't be all that long until more of us start to go. None of us are young anymore, and though I wouldn't exactly call us old, well over half of our lives our behind us now. I hope that we all live for many more years, but if your death taught me anything: it's that people can die at any time. I think it might be about time for me to retire, and to start spending more time with Liam, and the D.A.
I'm just going to try and enjoy their company while their still here with me.
With much love,
Padma