(This is for our friend and classmate Doug Beaulieu, who fought an amazing fight against cancer for the past four years. He gave it everything he had to the very end and left everyone who knew him with a legacy of character, humor, kindness and strength.  We will miss you, Doug, but your heart and life lives on in those who love you so dearly and whose lives you touched so profoundly. Thank you for your example of a life well lived…)

Every story has an ending

Every song its closing note

Every lovely piece of prose its final rhyme

Every flame burns into embers

Every ocean ends in shore

Every beating heart will one day have its time.

But sometimes the story’s way too short

Sometimes the song’s not done

Sometimes the poetry needs one more line.

Sometimes the fire’s extinguished far too soon

Sometime’s the shore is harsh

Sometimes a beating heart needs much more time.

We weren’t ready for the ending

Cuz your story was so great.

We didn’t want the song to end

You weren’t done singing yet.

The poetry your life  had penned

Left us longing for some more

The fire of the fight you fought

Your ocean’s mighty roar.

Yet no ending here is final

Your presence still goes on

In the smiles of your children

The lives you’ve touched through all you’ve done.

Your humor leaves us laughing

Your character inspires

Your kindness lives on in our hearts

To your strength we will aspire.

Every story has an ending

But the good ones still go on

Classics remembered, treasured forever

Will never be truly gone…