Saturday, February 3, 2018
Gene, I will never forget the kindness and fellowship we shared. You stood by my at a point in my life where I was the weakest and not very loveable. You did not abandon me. You stood fast in the storm and waited for calmer seas.
You are one in 7 billion. Your memory will never be stricken from the rolls.
Rest well.
This is the translation of a poem from Catalus. He was mourning the death of his brother. You are now, have been, and always will be my friend, brother and shipmate.
Carried through many nations and many seas,
I arrive, brother, at these miserable funeral rites,
So that I might bestow you with the final gift of death
And might speak in vain to the silent ash.
Since Fortune has stolen you yourself from me,
Alas, wretched brother, unfairly stolen from me,
Meanwhile, however, receive these which in the ancient custom of [our] parents
were handed down as a sad gift for funeral rites,
dripping much with fraternal weeping,
And forever, brother, hail and farewell.
