Maybe it could have been different

How do you say goodbye to someone 85 years old who’s living on his own having lost his wife of 60 years not 18 months before. Who knows.

And whether the quick hug at the door and a goodbye with the promise to keep in touch want the best. But it was all I could manage and probably all he wanted. Although that could be just me.

And now 13000k apart I probably speak to him more than I’ve done over the years but still we keep it high level; neither of us going to go to the places we know are there but can’t yet see the way in. And why should we? It’s painful from my side and probably the same in his but for very different reasons.

I guess it was a proper goodbye. Distance that existed between us for ever matched by a physical distance that is about as far as you can get.