Learning to Say Goodbye

She was thirteen when they first met. He was a mere four years older. Two very different people. She was beautiful, firey, passionate, outspoken; he was quiet and placid, sensitive, honourable, remarkably intelligent. But, somehow, they saw something in each other. They completed one another and love tied them together. By the time she was fourteen, they got together..and were an inseparable item for nearly thirty years. The couple got married when she was 18 and their first born boy shortly arrived. They were happy. As he was a high court lawyer, an academic professor and prestigious writer and she had long abandoned to think of an academic career for herself (especially since she was the mother of a young child). Nevertheless, he believed in her and encouraged to live her dreams, to dream out loud. She did and her legal expertise became in high demand very soon. Love kept on growing alongside their joint careers and lives. They depended on one another and were willing to sacrifice themselves for their spouse. I have always believed that with real love comes a willingness to invest, sacrifice, give up one's life for the other. Theirs was real love indeed. Whilst she was pregnant, he was diagnosed with an incurable illness..from there after, every day of life was an incomprehensible blessing and priceless gift from God. Twenty one years later, that life was taken away together with an unfailing faith and remarkable person. This is the story of Renato Branno, my uncle, who God called home last night after over twenty years of suffering. We never spent a great deal of time together, but he is one of my heroes in life. He taught me to dream, to dream out loud. He was very cunning, reflective, attentive yet, somehow, he always managed to see the best in people - even in me. In the face of everyone else putting me down for taking uncostumary decisions, he stood by me and cheered my passion for God and life and Justice. Last time we saw each other, he had tears in his eyes and thanked me for making him see life and the world through my eyes, through the places I go, the people I meet, the things I do and the way I fight. I was so honoured and privileged to ever even know someone as extraordinary as him, my uncle. He had a wicked taste in music (he was an outstanding guitarist and pianist himself), quick-witted, sophisticated yet down to earth, knowledgeable (he could talk with property and confidence about from ancient philosophy to Peter Kay and back to current affairs..a genius!). I shall miss him loads; nevertheless, I paradoxically have one more reason to live: to honour his memory and continue his vision. I am not good at saying goodbye, but I am trying to learn.

In loving memory of Renato Branno, 1959 - 2007