From the before, a thank you

There is a lot you end up leaving when you move, especially like this, trading a whole life for a whole different life. You have to make room. You have to close. The night before we set off, before the full truck and empty house, Husband and I had dinner with favorite friends M. and J. M. and I shared an office when we first started out at school, which I have always thought was quite lucky for me, given his generosity, spirit, and overall awesomeness. He makes everyone around him feel valuable and full of verve. Also, jolly. I have so appreciated his friendship and stories, and I watch on in awe of his work ethic and utter genius. J., his wife, manages to be lovely, determined, sincere, and kind all at once. Beautiful! She is the kind of person you want with you in a fight, who would scold you thoroughly afterward and then take you out for coffee or something stronger, and save you all over again. I have no idea how she does this with such grace, but I'm terribly grateful that we spent our last evening with her and her husband. We passed around plates of deliciousness and caught up and laughed and said goodbye. I have no idea what we talked about. It was just dinner with friends, only not quite. For me, it was warm and final and fitting. Something like closure, if closure was a scarf you wrapped around your shoulders and took with you, that you could hang on any hook, anywhere, and feel peace.