Help me say goodbye and do not make it harder to leave you because of tears in your eyes.  Smile that knowing smile I have grown to expect and hold yourself up straight and tall.  Let me walk this path that awaits me without regrets.  Each day has a dusk, a night and an end.  Let this day be one where the sunset remains in your memory, one where the sky was full of bright shinning stars and the glow of the moon lit up the darkness.

All the old cliches about good things that must come to an end, and nothing lasts forever, they are all saying what we know is true.  There is a time when we can walk side by side and a time for one to go on and the other to walk alone for a time.  The memory is what will fill the emptiness and let you live again the times we had together.

Help me say goodbye and go on with confidence that you understand and forgive the wrongs as well as remember what I did that was worthy.   It is never right to hold so tightly to another that you cause them pain.  Love is never having to say you are sorry just knowing that the other understands you well enough to feel what you feel even if they do not fully comprehend all the nuances of these emotions.

Farewell, goodbye, tot weeziens, auvoir the time has been well spent but I am now ready to move on.  See my smile as I walk into the setting sun across the sandy beach, the ocean lapping at my bare feet.  The warmth of the day begins to envelope me as the shadows of dusk take me into the night.   One look over my shoulder and a wave of my hand good bye my dear loved one. 

A millenium is nearly gone, a century almost passed, a decade at an end, a year is at its close, the last month, the final day that concludes and marks another passing.  These we celebrate and know this is the end and death yet we look forward to the dawn of the next day which will be the beginning of something new.  Hold these thoughts of rejoicing at my passing.

Read these words and know that there is an internal clock that is ticking marking off the moments that are left for us all. It is only that I hear my clock ticking louder with each passing day and before the last of the sand slides down the smooth sides of the hourglass I want to say goodbye.  That you made my life rich with love and appreciation and I am honored you allowed me to share some of the special moments of your life.

Smile now, let me carry on, remember all I have told you.  Goodbye and go on, be strong and happy in all that you do.

                                           Cheryl C. Helynck

                                                        1999