For Great Uncle Ray

I wrote this as my sign of respect for my Great Uncle who recently passed as I will be unable to attend his funeral.

Today I learned of the passing of a man,

A man whom I never had the pleasure of truly getting to know,

Despite this unfamiliarity, I feel this loss,

Here was a man whom I never saw without a smile on his face,

Whom I never heard speak ill of anyone, 

And who always seemed pleasantly surprised to see us,

The world is sorely lacking in men of this strength of character,

This kind hearted man with a sunny disposition was truly rare,

And though this man’s flame has now run out, we should not weep for him

We should instead take this time to reflect happily on all the positive ways he influenced our individual lives.

And though I will never have the opportunity to know this man better than I do now

I feel as though my life is better for having known him

Life is a fragile, fleeting thing, and we all should take from his passing,

The lesson to enjoy life, and try to have the sort of positive impact that he had,

Robert Frost was right, nothing gold can stay