Learning to Say Goodbye

Irina Pino

HAVANA TIMES — I had recent news of two deaths; one at the end of last year and the other early this year. First came the death of a brother of a good friend who lives in the United States, then the mother of Veronica, my friend and colleague.

Though I didn’t know them directly it still caused me grief. Experiencing the pain is possibly especially when there is a close connection out of love and mutual understanding.

I imagine that when the body is abandoned, thoughts and ideas have to go to end up somewhere. That energy must turn into something. The sun, the rain, the sky and the wind will behold them for the last time and say to them, rest in peace.

I think that death is unfair when dreams that somehow could have been tangible stop. That’s the worst, because there is a double disappearance, the chain never found the link to continue, then the halo is floating in unknown dimensions, which only souls can see.

The impossible journey, the child that wasn’t able to see a parent … Two stories that have been truncated, purposes that didn’t set sail.

Worse is that death by accident, or that surprises in childhood, when the fruit has just begun to take on all its beauty. But when there is a long illness, the rest need follow.

We must learn to let things and people go, although not completely vanish. We cannot hold a drop of water between our fingers. Life is fleeting, but the mark of the beloved stays. We must say goodbye and mourn. Deliver them to the care of angels.

Yet death relieves those who remain wrapped in pain as they encourage those dreams and in unknown ways will make them come to pass; this will be their mission on earth.