Last week one of our staff members, Hannah, left St. Louis School. Here is an anonymous goodbye letter sent to us by one of her closest friends:

I never knew how to say goodbye to a friend and I never will know; they say it’s one of the hardest things to do.

I had always told myself “its life, we have to continue living”, that was until now. People react differently to things, have different ways to get over, but I don’t know how to. Having to say goodbye to a friend that I’ve known since childhood, destroyed me. Literally. 

I didn’t know whether to talk to her or ignore her; I guess that was the wrong thing to do… But I couldn’t bare to talk to her or look her in the eyes, it hurt too much. I’ve been a bit stubborn, I wouldn’t want to listen to her when she tried to talk to me and I didn’t think that, maybe, I was hurting her.

I usually run away from all the problems that I encounter, even though I realised not long ago, that they keep on following me wherever I go; and as such, she kept on following me.

At a certain point throughout the day I finally gave up (by gave up I mean ‘started crying’); both of us were emotional wrecks. I told her everything I felt and all of my thoughts: it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and ever will do. I thought of different ways I could tell her goodbye, but I stopped myself because, suddenly, I realised that this wasn’t a goodbye, this was just like every other day, I would just say bye.

Yes, I won’t be able to see her everyday or talk to her in person, but I still will be able to see her during weekends and the holidays, or simply talk to her over the phone. So I finally told myself to just goodbye; after all, my friendship with her is forever and nothing will ever break us apart.