09/01/2026
I’ve come to believe that some souls simply aren’t meant to stay here long.
And I don’t say that lightly.
It’s not something I understand in any earthly way, because truthfully, I don’t.
There’s no logic that can explain why someone we love so deeply could be here one day and gone the next. If there’s a reason, I wish I knew it.
But I don’t.
What I do believe is that we’re each sent here to touch certain lives. To love certain people. To leave imprints that carry on long after we’re gone.
Maybe our time, no matter how painfully short or unexpectedly brief, isn’t measured in years but in the depth of love we give and the connections we make.
I’ve seen how a single person, even one who has left this world far too soon, can change everything for those they loved. The ripple of their kindness, their laughter, their very presence, it never really disappears. It lingers in every person they touched, in quiet moments of memory, in the ways we love others because of how they loved us.
Here’s the thing…maybe that was their purpose.
Maybe that was their gift.
Still…knowing that doesn’t erase the pain I still feel every day. It doesn’t fill the space they left behind. Because the missing never fully goes away.
But sometimes, I can still feel the love. Like they’re whispering to me, “I did what I came here to do and I left my love with you.”
And that’s enough for me now. To hold onto the idea that their time, no matter how brief, was important and special. That the love wasn’t taken away, it only transformed.
That even though they couldn’t stay, that gift of love they gave me will continue to grow for as long as I live.
In many ways, I feel like that love is still here, because love isn’t something you can touch and hold in your hand. It’s a feeling.
And it’s still here…moving through my heart.
Gary Sturgis – Surviving Grief