Dear Beth

I didn't know you for very long, I wish I had more time to share with you, which I'm sure is a feeling other people who knew you share with me.

Today I learned about your passing and felt deeply sad. I went for a run in the forest, knowing it would lift my spirit, and as I was following my usual route I saw that a pine tree had fallen and was blocking the way. Its trunk wasn't thick which made me think about how young it must have been and inevitably I thought of you. My heart sank.

I went around the fallen tree and continued my run, this time looking straight down. That is how I noticed just how many dry leaves were covering the forest floor. It has been an unusually cold and wet spring season in Austria and it is only since last weekend that the weather has turned. The reward for endless rainy days is that now, as the sun shines, the trees are full of the greenest and richest leaves, sheltering you from its sudden warmth, while dancing to the breeze. This again, made me think of you, but this time my heart lifted, because I could see now that just like the young fallen tree, these leaves covering the ground were not really gone and never would be. You see, at first glance it may seem that as time goes by, these "fallen things" gradually disappear, but in reality, the more invisible they become, just as gradually sadness dissipates giving way to something deeper, the fallen come back, and they expand. They become the roots, the trunks, the leaves of a new forest.

Young Beth. I can't say I am not devastated at the thought of you never fully reaching adulthood, at the thought of you never cooking for your own children, but I know this: you lived. You lived and that is a fact. You touched lives, you touched mine, and I will carry you with me, as I am sure many will. I will remember just how classy you were; I will remember your immense talent, and your equally large modesty. Most of all, I will remember your kindness. I will carry you with me. I will not forget.