[Peggy Sue]

We lucky ones who were fortunate enough to spend so many good times with Dave are brokenhearted that we've lost our friend. Still, I know that his remarkable spirit remains with everyone who knew and cared about him. I also like to imagine that he's embarked on a new expedition ... the best one yet, I hope, where he'll have no physical limitations and nothing but amazing and fascinating adventures.

I find Henry Van Dyke's "Parable of Immortality" a comforting way to think of that final journey:

"I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, “There she goes!”

Gone where? Gone from my sight ... that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There she goes!” there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”

I bet there were lots of glad shouts for Dave. And I, for one, like to think about him waiting to greet me someday.

Love to all .... ps