He was one of my favorite persons in the whole world. Right next to Moses, Anthony Bourdain and all my favorite writers.
As my grandfather left this world I also left for a new adventure.
It seems that our departures were magically coordinated.
My grandfather was a 100% hard-core-to-the-bones-non-conformist. His story is way up there together with those of the greatest travelers.
Maybe one day I'll tell it but not today. It deserves more than one blog post. It deserves a Best Seller.
Today as my family holds his memorial service I will be on my way to Hong Kong, my first stop of our South East Asia journey.
I didn't get to tell him about it. I didn't get to list him all the countries we are going to. I didn't even get to say goodbye.
I shared so much with my grandfather and I don't mean it in a having-fond-memories-way but in a I-have-so-much-of-him-in-me sort of thing.
So I keep telling myself that there was no need to say goodbye, he is coming with me not only on this trip but in every single moving forward step that I take.
That is what he gave me, that is what he left me with. A huge part of him. His desire, his thirst for more and that was, in one word, his essence.