Keep a fire burning in your eye
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down
I don't remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must have thought you'd always be around
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now you're nowhere to be found

Momma called me late last night. At first, I thought surely she was mistaken. People like Sarah don't die. Not at 49. It just doesn't happen. But as she read the obituary to me, I realized it was her - my friend had died of ovarian cancer, and I didn't even know she was sick.

I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I can't singI can't help listening
And I can't help feeling stupid standing 'round
Crying as they ease you down'
Cause I know that you'd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away(Right on dancing)
No matter what fate chooses to play(There's nothing you can do about it anyway)

I wish I'd called her. I had her phone number, her address, I'd been to her new house before we moved up here... but instead, I sent an e-mail. And when it bounced, I assumed she'd changed providers and I waited to hear from her. Sometimes I'm so wrapped up in my own little world I forget about those around me. I should have called her. God, how I wished I'd called.

Ju6st do the steps that you've been shown
By everyone you've ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours
Another's steps have grown
In the end there is one dance you'll do alone

I'd cry, but it wouldn't help. And Sarah wouldn't want that anyway. So instead, I'll try today to celebrate my wonderful friend, who was "beautiful, flamboyant, outrageous, unconventional, outspoken and wildly original." I couldn't have said it better myself.

Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
And just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Don't let the uncertainty turn you around(The world keeps turning around and around)
Go on and make a joyful sound

So here's my fervent prayer - that she's wrapped in the arms of a loving God, who even though she may not have completly believed in Him, I know He always believed in her. Because a heaven without Sarah wouldn't be much of a heaven at all.

Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive
But you'll never know {Jackson Browne}