Nope. This is not fiction.
I had a pretty solid sleep last night, so when I awoke at 7 am, I thought, hmm not bad, because my sleep patterns are irregular at best, and non-existent at worst. I was going to get up, but I just had this uncontrollable urge to shut my eyes again; not the normal I'm-going-to-laze-around-in-bed-cus-it's-Sunday kind of urge, but a deep need to close my eyes.
I woke up exactly one hour later, feeling happy and sad and moved, and thrilled, and mostly, in awe. You see, one of my very best friends, Silvia, died from cancer a few short weeks ago, and being in Mexico, I did not get a chance to say goodbye in person.
I wrote a post seven months ago when I received the devastating news about her illness but mostly about who she was and what her amazing legacy was to me. She and I had been emailing ever since I heard the news, but I just never got a chance to hug her goodbye.
This morning I did.
She was in my dream; not a normal dream. But she was there. She was here. We both told each other how much we loved each other, how much we missed each other, and then I gave her a huge hug. I could feel her body. She turned to walk away, but looked over her shoulder and said, "one is never enough", and came back to give me one more :)
As she was turning to leave for the last time, I said, "Take care." She turned to me and said, "How the fuck am I supposed to do that?"
That may sound horrible, but I laughed because Silvia spent her life questioning things, and I suppose she's still doing just that...wherever she is.