Endings and beginnings

We lost two good men last week. Warren Kocourek and Joe Kelly were fine gentlemen and a treasure to their friends, families and community.
When I first came to Hazen, Warren and Joe were among the first people to welcome me and make me feel that this could be my home. I was grateful for their kindness, and remain grateful to them to this day.
I wanted them to stay around a while longer, but that wasn’t to be. I’ll miss them.
Their passing, coming so closely upon the heels of the high school graduation, spurred a singular set of emotions in me. I felt a deep sense of loss and, to be honest about it, I’m having more than a little trouble getting past it.
Two people I had known experienced the one transition that all of us will experience and had reached the ending of their earthly existence. They left us and, except in memories and in the influence they had on so many of us, they will no longer be a part of our lives.
Almost at the same time, quite a few young people experienced another common rite of passage, one that was both an ending and a beginning. In all likelihood they were unaware of it at the time, but their childhoods ended that night when they received their diplomas. From this point on, their lives will become infinitely more complex, more involved, more difficult. Many of the things, and many of the people, that have been important to them will become less so as time goes on.
Many of them are leaving, too. We will see them now and again, or I hope we will. But, for the most part, they are on their own. In a relatively short span of time, they won’t be quite the same people we had known before. The world, and their experiences in it, will change them, or develop them if you prefer.
For my part, I rather wish this wasn’t so. For some of those young people, I have an almost paternal feeling. While I want them to grow and learn and become more than they have been, I want them to stay the same, too. I imagine their parents feel much the same way.
But those of you, gentle readers, who have seen your children move on in life, know as well as I do that they never stay the same. Most of the changes are necessary and beneficial, though some are not.
That’s how it works, though. As Charles Dickens said, “Life is made up of meetings and partings. That is the way of it.” It would be selfish of those of us who remain to have it any other way.
As I said, I’ll miss Joe and I’ll miss Warren. But I am convinced they are in a better place, and there is comfort in that.
It’s a different story with the young folks. I wish them well and I know they have what it takes to succeed, but I’ll worry about them anyway. You see, although they’ll look much the same when they come back to visit, they really won’t be the same at all.
I’ll miss them, too.