In view of the passing of a great man, leader and liberator of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, as well as the loss of friends' parents , and friends in general, the below seems to fit perfectly.

Not only do we lose people to death, but people come in and out of your life at different times and stages for different reasons. Some known, sometimes with reasons unknown. However, memories and stories last a lifetime, and no experience is bad experience, you’ll always learn something.

“ Stories, like people and butterflies and songbirds’ eggs and human hearts and dreams, are also fragile things, made up of nothing stronger or more lasting than twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation marks. Or they are words on the air, composed of sounds and ideas – abstract, invisible, gone once they’ve been spoken – and what could be more frail than that? But some stories, simple ones about setting out on adventures or people doing wonders, tales of miracles and monsters, have outlasted all the people who told them, and some of them have outlasted the lands in which they were created. “

                                                                                                           Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things


I think the greatest thing to have, is a story that will outlast a person you have lost, will outlast forgotten friendships, will outlast you…