A long-time friend of mine was exchanging e-mails with me two years ago, and went silent. I kept sending e-mails and received nothing in response.

Today I Googled my friend's name, and found her obituary.
She died two years ago, one month after her last e-mail to me.

We were both at university studying music together. However, she was older than I. I was only an undergraduate, and she was returning to school after raising three children.
We became rather close, and her exuberant, vivacious spirit was like a tonic for me. She was Irish-American and a recovering Catholic, so to speak. She was young at heart even as her body aged.

I went back and looked at her last e-mail. She had been in the hospital with serious illness, and reading between the lines I wonder if she had minimized in her e-mail just how serious it was. By this time she was old enough to have seven great-grandchildren. She had suffered badly from a series of falls as well, breaking bones. So her old suffering body was ready to go.

I cannot believe that her spirit has been extinguished after burning so brightly.
I have to believe that her spirit exists on another plane, as vibrant as ever.

Thanks for listening. I had to tell somebody.