Graduation

~ Morrie died on a Saturday morning.
His immediate family was with him in the house, Rob made it from Tokyo-he got to kiss his father goodbye---and Jon was there, and of course Charlotte was there and Charlotte's cousin, Marsha, who had written a poem that so moved Morrie at his "unofficial" memorial service, the poem that likened him to a "tender sequoia." They slept in shifts around his bed. Morrie had fallen into a coma two days after our final visit, and the doctor said he could go at any moment. Instead, he hung on, through a tough afternoon, through a dark night.
Finally, on the fourth of November, when those he loved had left the room just for a moment-to grab coffee in the kitchen, the first time none of them were with him since the coma began- Morrie stopped breathing.