Written with love by Nicky Frisby
My Dearest Friend, Fran,
How do I love thee? Can’t possibly count the ways. You’ve become a good, better, closer friend every day since we met a lifetime ago. You, and previously you and Alan, enfolded me into your care making sure I never felt alone. You have always taken interest in the minutia of my life, and you are interested and commit to memory the details . . . an amazing listener. While I think my life unremarkable, you make me a star on a talk show. You can’t know how much your care has meant to me . . . I have valued it more and more as I grow older. How many friends care as much? And it’s not only me you care for . . . you are an angel hovering over many.
In the last act of Macbeth, he cries to Seyton:
My way of life
Is fall’n into the sear — the yellow leaf —
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have . . .
But Fran, you are the opposite . . . you are graced with honor, love, obedience, and troops of friends surrounding you . . . and we are grateful you’ve allowed us to stay close.
Since you became aware you are ill and shared the news with loved ones, you have been constantly on my mind . . . all day, when I wake in the night, while doing mundane, routine chores, while teaching. Running through my mind are the many novels and short stories we commonly taught. How many times did we discuss ad nauseum details of literature? Jodi Littell reminded me of Emily Dickinson’s poem when she was checking with me about how you were doing. She couldn’t remember the poem, but this is it:
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
She wrote 500+ poems about death . . . not with morbid sentiments but with fascination. She is immortalized worldwide, and you are immortalized within the world of everyone you’ve touched, taught, and loved.
How many movies, plays, meals, birthdays, graduations, celebrations, walks, talks have we shared with each other and with a wider circle? While I can’t count them, you will remain by my side and in my heart all my days to come.
How do I love thee? Every possible way . . . now and always.
Your friend,
Nicky
12/03/20
