For those who love words, I am sharing this, as I just read it for a third time. I find Patti’s tribute to Sam extraordinarily beautiful, rich, insightful and loving.

“We didn’t have to talk then, and that is real friendship. Never uncomfortable with silence, which, in its welcome form, is yet an extension of conversation.”

“Sam walked to his bed and lay down and went to sleep, a stoic, noble sleep. A sleep that led to an unwitnessed moment, as love surrounded him and breathed the same air. The rain fell when he took his last breath, quietly, just as he would have wished. Sam was a private man. I know something of such men. You have to let them dictate how things go, even to the end. The rain fell, obscuring tears.”

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/my-buddy-sam-shepard