Last Lap of a Long Race

for Ray

What is a likeness? When a person dies, they leave behind, for those who knew them, emptiness, a space: the space has contours and is different for each person mourned. This space with its contours is the person's likeness and is what the artist searches for when making a living portrait. A likeness is something left invisibly behind.--from The Shape of a Pocket, John Berger

He lived on the edge of death, hand in hand with his own mortality. At first, Death trotted along behind like a faithful dog, loyal as the memory of barefoot days by the lake of his childhood. Then it took his breath away as it ran in front, pulling him into its river, forcing him to swim upstream. 

In the rare still pools of his existence, his friendship ran deep. His wisdom, his compassion were gifts, radiant in connection.

When the darkness came again, he rocked himself to sleep, comfortable in the arms of the old shadow that had trailed him for so long. Death was as familiar as a well-worn garden glove or the cracking leather of his hiking boot as he ran on ahead and was gone.

Photograph by Luna Zeffer