When you walked in you could
have said what a lot of people
around here would have said,

“Wow! I would never have re-
cognized you. You have changed
so much,” and they wouldn’t

have meant for the better, but
you, after twenty years, said,
“I would have recognized you

anywhere,” and then when you
saw my daughter you thought,
I think I’ve seen her before,

and then you realized that
you had not met her but that
she looked like her beautiful

late mother and you told her
so and tears of gratitude rose
in her eyes, and then after

an evening together and many,
many more sincere compliments
from you about my wife’s art,

about the dinner she prepared,
talk of the forty-eight year
history of our knowing each

other and the recounting of
your wonderfully rich life,
we hugged, said goodbye and

I realized anew what an incredibly
nice human being you are and
how privileged I am to know you.