Dearest Linda
Carroll tells me you and I
would have been more than friends
that you'd have found
in me an older brother
one who shared
your intellectual passion
your strong ways of engaging
with others
with the world
and so I share in my wife's grief
that we lost you
far too soon
who were her closest
best companion
through her childhood
adolescence
college years
you were the one
she left home with
when you were twenty
and she just eighteen
for three years you two
lived together
sharing your dreams
how deeply still
she feels your loss
twenty years later
shows me how much
she loved and treasured you
and though I never had
the chance to know you
getting to know the daughter
whom you left behind
now a newly fledged pediatrician
a woman of strong feelings and opinions
that same intensity my Carroll says
was your way too
I can imagine something
of who you were
and for your sister will be always
so I'm writing to invite you formally
into our home
whether as memory or spirit
or whatever form
you wish to take
you're welcome here with us
and I will love you and respect you
as my wife does
so she can move beyond mere grief
to celebration of a life
your life and to the understanding
that your presence here with us
if still a gift
something to make us laugh at times
or to surprise us
when one of us
blurts out a witticism
or complaint that clearly came from you
or else a memory
that you've brought to mind
for my wife
your sister
to share with me
enough for now
we can continue this
another time
since time is all we have
that and our loves
there's little else exists
that's worth the worry