Too Short for a Blog Post, Too Long for a Tweet LXXIV

Here's an excerpt from a book I recently read, "Men We Reaped: A Memoir," by Jesmyn Ward:

After Rog’s funeral, I tapped Rhea’s shoulder. I opened my arms, hugged her. Her big, expressive eyes were bloodshot and wandering. I wondered what I would have wanted someone, anyone, to say to me when my brother died, anything beyond Are you all right? and Are you okay? I knew the answers to those questions. I whispered into her ear: “He will always be your brother, and you will always be his sister.” 

What I meant to say was this: You will always love him. He will always love you. Even though he is not here, he was here, and no one can change that. No one can take that away from you. If energy is neither created nor destroyed, and if your brother was here with his, his humor, his kindness, his hopes, doesn’t this mean that what he was still exists somewhere, even if it’s not here? Doesn’t it? Because in order to get out of bed this morning, this is what I had to believe about my brother, Rhea. But I didn’t know how to say that.