In mourning...again

We just got news that another friend is being asked to leave Elsewhere. This friend has spent the last five decades teaching, working with orphans, leading girl scouts and giving of herself to a country that has given her less than a week to leave.

Put this in perspective: Imagine a parent or grandparent (she is in her seventies) being uprooted from their friends and family. Posessions accumulated since the 1960s have to be sorted through and discarded unless they are small enough to fit in one of a few suitcases. Hundreds of goodbyes will have to remain unsaid because there simply isn't enough time. Every meal will be with loved ones and there still won't be enough time. (And there hasn't been a shipment of good food imports in months anyway). Favorite places will have to remain unvisited because even if there was time, the permits to travel would never be granted. "This will be the last time I..." echoes. Absolute exhaustion hits even before getting on the plane. Tears will have to wait until Germany when the flight over the Atlantic will start. Sure, the move will be to a place where the language is understood but will never really be home.

I guess what hurts most is that there is simply nothing I can do to help solve the problems going on there.

PS - I just found out that another friend, born in Elsewhere but now an American, has been imprisoned since Oct. 4. He has two children and an American wife who are both currently in the US.