running with scissors

"Love lost is still love. It takes a different form, that’s all. You can’t see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it. Life has to end. Love doesn’t." 

-Mitch Albom

To my cousins, I know you probably won't read this, but I'll write anyway. It is fate. We can't fight it, we can't do anything about it. We are powerless. If God says be it; so be it.  You've had 25, 24, 23, 18, 15, 12 years with him, and yes, those years, no matter how many decades you have spent, will never ever be enough. For he was your strength, your everything. Life will be hard after this, no doubt,  from accepting to moving on, but that is what it is. Life. It goes on, it can be taken away in a second, it can be well spent, or it can be thrown away. We all have choices, but we all do not have the choice to live forever. What we can do is be the best that we can ever try to be, to make life as wonderful as possible, so you will not regret much when it's your time to go. Your father was a great man, and I think he has nurtured and loved you six up until the point that he knew you are ready to face anything. And we share the same belief. Cry if you want to, mourn as long as you like, as grief is never easy. But do continue on being successful, being great sons and daughters to your mother, and stay together. You will be okay. Love.