Standing in Ruthie’s kitchen the day after she died, laughing with all of Mike’s friends who had surrounded him to hold him up (‘We’re leaning, but we’re leaning on each other,’ Mike later said), I thought, ‘Even with all the sadness, there’s no place else in the world I’d rather be.’
—
Going Home Again - NYTimes.com
One of my closest friends - we grew up down the road from each other and were pretty much inseparable from kindergarten on - lost his father in the spring of 2010. I was tremendously close to the man, and this quote is hauntingly accurate in describing how I felt when I went home for the wake. Afterwards we did what felt right - we all went, the family, their closest friends, their neighbors, to an Olive Garden, of all places. Then we went back to my friend’s home - me, my friend, the other two guys who formed our nucleus of friends from elementary school on, my friend’s now fiancee - and we did what we always do. We watched an absolutely crappy movie (The Book of Eli), ate pizza, and talked. It was perfectly cathartic, at least for me.
