Tribute to a beloved friend

My dear friend died last Tuesday. I had called his home that day, and at 2:40 he was still alive. He died later that afternoon. He was just 56.

After that phone call I was at loose ends and decided to go out to the beach house. Even though I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to surf---waves were head high---I just wanted to be there, and I’m glad I did.

It was very warm, 60 degrees, and a lot of people were out. Surfing, photographing, making art. One woman photographer was writing inscriptions in the sand, then photographing them before they disappeared. They were names of people, names of couples, dates, anniversaries or birthdays probably.

I guess she was making art. I don’t even know if they were real people. But she inspired me. The next day, when no one was out but me and it had turned cold, I wrote a message in the sand for my friend. Just his name, and his years of birth and death, and what he used to say to me: Much love always.

He was already dead as I was writing this, and photographing it with the sun on it before the waves washed it away. No one saw but me. It’s gone now. It’s gone already.