Brittany

Yesterday the world lost a very special young lady and I lost a very special friend.

… a lost love.

No one should leave the world at 29 and least of all people that bring such joy and life to those they share their life with.

Brittany was one of those people. The kind of person that we, who live in her afterglow, yearn for. She was such a source of joy that love followed her every move. Anyone of us lucky enough to experience her fell in love with her soul.

Because her soul was life-giving, caring, and gentle.

She was wiser than her years by far and many evenings were spent shared on the sofa locked in animated argument over political or socially dividing issues. Her mind was every bit as beautiful as her body was and I loved her for it.

She filled my heart with many memories that will be held very special within me for the rest of my own life.

She lived with us here for a while, she worked with our little company, she walked trails with me, modeled for me, went to the movies with me, and watched sunsets with me.

So, yesterday evening, upon hearing of her death I took myself off to the spot where we watched so many sunsets and watched yesterday disappear below the horizon on my own.

On many occasions, she would bring her hoop and play with it as the sun dropped, listening to the strains of her music interrupted only by the incessant sounds of a shutter clicking.

She didn’t mind … my camera loved her almost as much as I did. And my picture library is filled with some wonderful images that will (at least for a while) be painful to see.

She occupies a month in my calendar for 2021; the one I had just sent off for printing. And I know August will be bitter-sweet for me in so many ways.

I don’t believe we ever really recover from certain losses in our life. Some of them leave such a hole that time can’t even put a band-aid over, let alone heal. The hole that Brittany leaves in my heart will never be filled.

Nor do I want it to be filled. It is a marker for the piece of heart she took with her as she left this world and I give it to her freely.

Rest in Peace, Brittany … the world is a little less bright today.