Thank you for your natural, genuine kindness
Andrei,
The last few weeks have been poignantly stabbed and woven with melancholy as we have confronted the shattering truth none of us wants to believe, while reflecting on the profound interconnections of our lives.
You are an extraordinary person, a great and positive force that transcends the trivial, small nature of our mortal selves. This was immediately apparent from the moment we met twenty years ago, at the breakfast table, in the warm bosom of your mother’s peaceful home, the home where I came to live and know you as my brother. Our boyish antics as young men were both a test of Marcelle’s patience and a testament to her virtue, which in turn imbued you with such good character. Our shared experiences - of triumph and tragedy - created the unbreakable sinews which bound us together into adulthood and in spirit, forever, across time and distance, from this life and into the next.
Thank you for your natural, genuine kindness. Our many conversations and experiences over the years accumulated and collectively imprinted, giving me that special appreciation of your character and soul, an appreciation that does not require description with mere deficient words. For anyone who experienced you this way will immediately understand what I mean when I say that I can simply open my hands and know that you are present.
You are a great inspiration. You are remembered and mourned and celebrated.
Peace.