Your heart beats within me.

Long will your lessons live through me.

When I reminisce of you and smile,

I'll choke bittersweetly on your memory.

Your stories will be retold,

but never with the same vigor of voice.

Your recipes won't taste quite the same

without that old spice for life you always added.

Nobody will ever know just what to say

or how to say it in just the right way

like you did to me each dreary difficult day.

But with knowing you comes no loss,

just gain.

Your teachings and wisdom will always

help me sustain this life I construct

with you as the architect

on a foundation of memories

we built together.

And if all else crashes down around it,

a foundation can never fall,

and the concrete you poured

will give way to high rises of those

who I have passed your

plans and designs for a happy life

down to.

I cannot and will not forget you.

You are infused in me.

A part of me is you.

I will not say goodbye.

Goodbye is for departures

and ours is a bond that not even

death can part.

But I will instead say

goodnight sweet soul,

till dreams do take me back to you

with tales of my own,

in a skyline rich in what,

with your wisdom always in heart,

we have continued to build together.