My face was flushed and damp. Mascara began to crust under my eyes. The yellowed, sharp grass pricked my legs as I bent down to hug my best friend. Tears uncontrollably rolled down my face. Miley’s smooth marble gravestone was cold to the touch. But Miley, she was the warmth to my life.

Just days ago we were singing “Umbrella” at the top of our lungs in our little beat up car with all the windows down driving the backroads. Just days ago we sat up all night staring at the stars talking about our dreams and aspirations. Just days ago we made friendship bracelets, “always and forever” they said.

What we didn’t know, Miley was going to be diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was given just a mere two weeks to live.

I knew that she wouldn’t have wanted me to spend my days weeping at her side. She told me, even in a time of such grievance, “That even when I’m gone, you can hear me in the rustle of the autumn leaves, you can hear me in cool summer breeze, you can see me in the clouds, you can feel my heart in your footsteps on the ground.”

Sometimes the best people in life are the people that are taken too early. But those people, they can be the people that stay beside you in thought forever. Be the person that they would have wanted you to be.