I began writing this story, ‘A Dream I Never Woke From’ while a dear friend was nearing the end of their life.
I never said thank you—to say it felt like accepting that they were going to die, and we parted before I could.
For a long time I carried that regret.
Then one day it came to me, quietly: we had understood each other completely, without ever needing to say it aloud.
The words were never necessary. (Please see the post ‘Words Left Unsaid’)
I came to believe that every meeting and every parting holds meaning, and that, somehow, we will meet again.
That tenderness is not only the love between two people.
It lives in friendship, in family, in every connection this world holds.
Nothing promises that the person I am today will still be here tomorrow, and I have come to feel, deeply, that ordinary days are the most beautiful ones we are ever given.
Some chapters may feel quiet, even slow.
But I wrote them believing that, as in life, everything becomes precious by the time we reach the epilogue.
Being able to give voice to so much pain through the filter of this story saved me.
If a reader should close the book feeling a little gentler toward the world, that would be my greatest happiness.
The name reminise began as a typo the I chose not to correct—a small accident kept as a reminder to preserve who you are today, before tomorrow changes the truth.