Thursday, November 09, 2006

Sad Travels

I’m staying with friends on the northside of Pittsburgh. I came here for today’s funeral. Last night, lying in bed, I listened to the lonely wail of trains running on the tracks down below along the Ohio River. Those heading east are beginning to slow down as they come through this section, before heading over the trestle and into the city. I listen to the cars bump each other as the brakes are applied. Those trains heading west start gaining speed and I make out the engines gain momentum as they cut through the night, the engine’s whistle wailing at each crossing. I remember sitting in B’s living room. There were four of us. I was traveling through, coming back from North Carolina. I was living in Western New York then, it was in the early 90s. B had invited a few of our joint friends over. He had a fire in the hearth and we sat around it. I nursed a scotch. We’d been talking for hours, catching on each other’s lives. As the embers were dying, the conversation paused. Then a train came by. “That’s the Capitol Limited, headed to Chicago,” B noted. “You can tell by the sounds as you don’t have the clanging of the cars as you do with the freight trains.” I thought of him every time a train came through.

12 comments:

  1. oh babe.

    so very sad. but a sweet memory all the same.
    and a way to say goodbye i guess, as the trains move on down the tracks.

    take care sweetie.

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  2. Honey bunch, this is the saddest thing that you could've written about this and I have a feeling you didn't even try. I didn't even know him and I feel the loss.

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  3. Trains make me lonesome.

    Sorry for your loss.

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  4. The sounds of trains late in the night so pull on my heart. I hope the company of others you are with helps to bring you all through this sad time.

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  5. Sorry, Sage. I went to a funeral today too.

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  6. I could just hear that train...I am sorry. It sounds like you are really honoring your friend well.

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  7. I'm back home--it's been a long three days and I haven't been online much at all. There were a lot of tears shed yesterday, but it was also good to be with old friends.

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  8. Sorry to comment so late. And sorry to hear about your loss.

    Losing a genuine, dear friend is the definition of great sadness. There's no antidote but great memories can, ever so slightly, ease the pain.

    May you dream of great conversations that never end.

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  9. thanks for dropping my blog which led me to this. beautiful writing. will come back and devour more. sympathies for your loss. have just lost a friend, too. whole chapters of one's own book of life go with them ...

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