R.I.P. Fuzz

Keith Joy was my best friend at Wells Road School. I don't remember meeting him actually. I do remember that I cried the first day of school when I wasn't in class with my sister (an irony she probably still treasures). But I met Keith and things smoothed out well. We shared classes all through those first four years. It was a tragedy for me when we were seperated when all the fifth graders moved to Kelly Lane School. But we stayed good friends and had a great childhood together.
Keith passed away a few weeks ago. His suffering is now over and I know he is in a better place. I admit that I haven't been a close friend for a long time now, each of us having moved deeper into our own lives and worlds.
But something strikes at your insides when that first peer is taken away from this world and moves to the next. Reading the comments in Keith's guestbook and learning some about his faith journey, I am heartened to think he and I will be reunited at some point. And he wasn't the first member of my high school class to die. He just happens to be the closest one. So I feel oddly changed.
I still have all the same memories I had last month. I can still call up the good times we shared, the pranks and jokes. There are so many. They will be with me as long as any other memories will be. But somehow it is changed and sadness isn't too far away, although I am thankful to have had him in my life so many years ago.
And so I say Rest In Peace, Fuzzy but really what I want maybe is that I can. I'm thankful that I do.
Peace to all who read these words.