Philosophy: a passing

Self-tutoring about life events: the tutor contemplates the loss of an old friend.

Every year I write Christmas cards from a list of addresses. When I don’t get one back, I stop sending one there. That’s how I’ve done it since around 2002.

Numerous people on the list I never talk to; some I may never have seen. However, they send me a Christmas card each year, so they get one. I don’t just write “happy holidays” or something like that. I write a message in each one based on news, the weather, and background I have with the correspondent.

One such person I have corresponded with since the beginning, whose card I wrote Dec 12 and posted Dec 13, passed last year, shortly before Christmas. I got a phone call this morning from his partner, of whose existence I’d been unaware. She’d received this year’s Christmas card from me, so called to tell me of his passing. She pointed out that, when she received my Christmas card in 2021, he was already gone, but she wasn’t emotionally ready to reach out then.

Interestingly, I received a card from him last year; he must have sent it just before passing. I knew he was getting on in years: he fought in WWII.

I told his partner that, since she lives permanently at that same address, I would keep sending a card there every year. Perhaps I’d address it to him, her, or both. She told me she would look forward to it, and that this year’s from me is on the mantle.

Merry Christmas and fare well, old friend.