Manan and I recently exchanged a note about our wonderful memories of ‘running away’ to NYC with Sameer and my best friend, Julie, so many years ago. That memory never fails to make me smile but thinking of it after Sameer’s death helped me remember that it was he who encouraged our rebellion! And now I’m laughing with the memory of this person who so subtly shook things up that it took me 25 years or more to realize it!!! Now that’s a life well lived that he’s given me a whole new source of joy even though he’s not on this earth anymore.

I hope you’re both finding yourselves able to cope and find solace in ways that mean something to you. There is a poem by Sufi mystic Rumi that says we must just let all the emotions that visit us come and stay as long as they will, not to resist, not to feel you should feel any different than you do. I believe it with all my heart and his wisdom has helped me through some profound losses in my life. I will send the poem shortly to your house in Florida.