I can’t remember when my late best friend started telling me this, but I do know that she mentioned it fairly often throughout the 17 years that she coped with metastasized colon cancer. “I have a grateful heart,” Georgann would say.

And so it goes, as we’ve learned, not a way of facing life but of facing death—grief tagging after us like a shadow

Tell me the story of how you came to be …

Or has everything happened,
and we are standing now, quietly, in the new life?

Put on your shoes and walk in the world,
talking to me. I’m right here with you;
I’m always within reach. It’s a good time
to chat, so go ahead. You’ll know it’s me
when you know it’s me. But even when
you’re not sure, I’m listening.