Thank you all so much. This is such a warm community.
I hadn't been able to sleep since I had found out the news. It felt like I'd never sleep again. I finally realized that the past couple days had been the longest I had gone without hearing her in the last 9 years. I think because of the way we met, her voice has always had special significance to me. Our first 3 years together were almost purely voice based communication ...
I hadn't ever thought about it before, but even after all these years living together we could hardly go a few hours without calling one another. Our friends used to make fun of us all the time about it, but it was a beautiful life.
I found a video of her last night, just her laughing and joking around with me and her brother. Just hearing her voice again was soothing. It actually put me right to sleep. She always used to tell me that our tomorrows were never guaranteed, that we should take each day as it comes ... just another example of how beautiful and wise she was.
This was the way she signed off each of her letters:
"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all
the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends
I want to see!!"
That was so her.