I have been stymied for the past few days, trying to write a note to a dear friend, yet completely at a loss for what to say. What do you say to a mother who has lost her child to cancer? What can you say to ease a pain so great, so unfair, so wrong that you can’t even comprehend it?

“The heart, like the mind, has a memory. And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Sleep doesn’t help if it’s your soul that’s tired.” Unknown

“I carry you with me into the world, into the smell of rain and the words that dance between people. And for me, it will always be this way, walking into the light, remembering being alive together.” Brian Andreas, StoryPeople

All men have stars, but they are not the same things for different people. For some. who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others, they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems. But these stars are all silent. You — you alone — will have the stars as no one else has them … In one of the stars, I shall be living. In one of them, I shall be laughing.