before. i would like to think that it is true that sometimes those who have passed on still visit us and guide us and love us in this life; making things a little more lovely in a world that can be tough. that is a happy though for me. for a moment, i smiled thinking, how wonderful it would be to see all of those lovely faces again. how excellent to meet my mother’s father. he had passed before i was born. how great it would be to hear my uncle’s laugh or one of his stories. and, for that moment, it seemed, that seeing these people was as easy 