Good Byes Suck

 

 

Good Bye

                  

Good byes happen.

Living in Geneva, good byes are almost a rule. People are assigned to different missions and NGOs for 2-6 years. Some permanent locals don't bother to make friends, because they will just move away. I am the opposite. I would not have missed many people who came and went. The memories are too precious to have missed. Some we visited in places like Prague, Germany, Syria. We are in various degrees of contact. Others others have faded away even beyond Christmas greetings.

In Argelès, friends who've retired here, decided as they age, they would be better off near children. Thus they've flown back to Denmark, UK and Scotland. 

Lately, some of the "permanent" people, full or part time, have been moving to their former home base. A British writer who became Swiss found the perfect place for her and her husband's retirement in the UK. Yes she will be back to their Valais chalet and yes, she is close enough to the Scottish border that when we go to Scotland, it's a hop and skip and a jump. And maybe, we should have done more Ladies that Lunch and film festivals, but we didn't.

Yesterday I learned that one of my Argelès favorites just sold her house. Lots of the time she isn't here because she's off on this or that adventure. Having survived more than one devastating illness, we are lucky to have her at all. Here, there or anywhere, she is a role model on carpe diem. 

Now that I am lucky enough to have "permanent" and "summer friends" in two.

At the same time, new friends have come for new memories. A Swedish couple, an Irish couple. A widow who found happiness with a retired French flic (cop). Locals. A writer/teacher who spent years in the U.S. She came home to Argelès probably leaving people in the States sad at losing her regular company.

We live in a mobile time. I am good on concentrating on how much I have enjoyed people when they are in a "let's meet for coffee tomorrow" distance. But I still think good byes suck.