16 years of friendship made it the most precious friendship in my life. One fine day I get a call when I was 900 miles away that my best friend is no more. I had met her 2 weeks back and she was as cheerful as she could be. I became inconsolable for a few minutes and then the desire to see her for the last time made me juggle to find a way to reach her.
Taking the first possible flight to reach her to say final goodbye and being of the last ones to see her before she went reminded me of her patience with all my late-comings during our school time. She waited for me as with the same patience as she used to wait while we went for classes together – about 15 years back. It seemed like she must have known that seeing her for the last time was important for me to move ahead and hence she waited.
After bidding her goodbye, the foremost important aspect was to take care of her family and to give them comfort. When I saw them getting better, I started feeling better. When all of us decided to celebrate her cheerfulness whenever we speak about her, and when we remembered her jokes and full of life attitude that she had, smiling became possible. It was difficult to continue striving to feel better, and emotional roller coaster continued for days from there. A friend or an extended family told us to be happy and live in the moment; to ensure that she feels happy seeing you from where ever she is. It was surprising that this one advice, changed the way we were feeling. Now, we wanted to smile for her and laugh the way she used to laugh. Life is a lot more than living in now, than living in the past; and everyone who say a final good bye to us want us to live in now than grieve.
The most challenging part was to control the sudden outburst of emotions, that continues till today, but to convert that emotion into inner strength than a weakness was tough in the beginning. But, then time played its role and as time passed, everytime I remembered her, it gave me an inner strength than that feeling of weakness which came earlier.
She remembered the important days of my life more than I remembered them. Every time an occasion of celebration comes, she is missed more than ever, but as it is rightly said, she lives in our hearts and that is forever. I am thankful to her that she ensured that we meet as much as possible in her lifetime, even when work kept me occupied, one person who will make sure that we meet was her. I just hope that you, me and everyone else find time for friends despite the busy-ness of life. Time is not past or future, time is present and she taught us this throughout her life, and continues to do so after she has gone.