I don't know about you, but New Year's Eve has always made me feel a little down. While I have been lucky to always have someplace to go and people to be with, it seems a little incongruous to celebrate everyone and everything getting older.
Still, a new year means a new start, at least in the sense that a beginning is always more exciting than an end. People like to make New Year's resolutions which, for the most part I do not do because I have never kept them when I have attempted to make them.
Anyway, I am a little more sad this year because someone I used to know very well has passed away. Every year I send out an email right before Christmas to family and friends. It includes a picture of my kids – to show everyone how much they have grown – and I add some information about what transpired in the past year.
So, I did that again this year, and as the days passed I got some responses to the email. I get no responses from some people, but in this hectic season I've come to understand that. I always respond to one-to-one emails from people I know, but those that are sent BCC to large groups I tend to read and move on.
This one person – I'll call her Jane for this essay – has always responded to my emails. Our friendship goes back over 30 years when we started working together as teachers. Although I have not seen her in 20 years, we have stayed in touch. She took genuine interest in how I was doing and delighted in hearing about my kids. Jane loved getting the pictures and hearing about what they were doing in school.
Well, I kept waiting to see an email from Jane as I checked my mail each day, and then today I realized it wasn't coming. I looked her up online, and I found her obituary right away. I couldn't do anything about it because she had died earlier this year, but I felt I had to do something, so I started writing this article.
I remember Jane fondly because we had so much in common. Although she was 20 years older than I am, we still clicked. We were avid NY Mets fans, loved the theater, loved literature, and loved France. We also loved teaching even with all the challenges that the job threw our way.
Jane was a wonderful person, but she never married and was an only child. As far as I know, she had no family. She did speak fondly of her parents and lived with her father in her childhood home until he died, where she then lived alone. I used to write to her there before email took over my means of communication, and then we corresponded that way.
Now, to get back to New Year's Eve, I will think of Jane tonight going into the countdown. Last year I had heard from her when I sent my message, and this year I know she won't be there. While I have said I don't do resolutions anymore, I am going to do intentions instead. One of them will be to stay in contact with people more often. I intend to listen more than I talk, and another intention is to have more meaningful conversations with people I care about. There are probably many more intentions I will think of after midnight tonight.
I hope all of you will have a wonderful 2026. Let's go into the new year with hope for peace, love, and prosperity. Only we can make 2026 better for ourselves, so have the intention to do that starting tonight at midnight.
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