The old man lay in his bed, his breath shallow, each rise and fall of his chest a slow, measured struggle. Outside, the soft murmur of a fading day filtered through the open window—leaves rustling in the gentle evening breeze, the last call of a bird settling in for the night.

He’d always loved the quiet at this hour. But tonight, the stillness seemed to carry more weight. His vision blurred, unfocused, and his thoughts drifted far away, as though his mind had already begun to untether itself from his body.

In that hazy space between consciousness and whatever lay beyond, the thought struck him with sudden clarity—that life was nothing more than an endless series of goodbyes.

He could see them, each moment playing out before him like an old film reel flickering in the dark. His mother’s soft, tired smile the day she’d waved him off to school for the first time, her frail arms wrapped in the apron she always wore. He hadn’t known it then, but that was the first goodbye, the first step toward all the others that would follow.

Then his father, stern but kind, clapping him on the shoulder the day he’d left for the city, off to chase dreams of work and fortune. That farewell had come with the unspoken understanding that nothing would ever be the same again.

There were so many. Friends he’d drifted apart from, lovers whose hands he’d held only to let go, children who had grown and gone on to lead their own lives. Even the things he hadn’t said goodbye to—his youth, his strength, his certainty—had slipped away silently over time.

He realized that life had been preparing him for this final moment all along. Every departure, every loss, every small parting had been a rehearsal for this—the last goodbye.

As his breathing grew fainter, the memories blurred together into a single, soft-edged mosaic. There was no bitterness in the thought. In a strange way, it brought him a kind of peace. What else had life been but a long, slow process of learning how to let go? Of things, of people, of time itself.

The last rays of sun disappeared beyond the horizon, the day drawing its own quiet valediction. The old man’s eyes fluttered closed, and with one final breath, he gave his last goodbye to the world.

And it, in turn, gently let him go.