How do you say goodbye?

Patrick OBrien has one of his characters say that a good book has no ending, you are left with a belief the characters go on with their lives, outside the pages and the story is not written. He compared it to an unfinished string quartet.

Well.. he would say that, having walked off a marriage and changed his name by deedpoll to go and become the writer, living a mostly fictionalised version of himself (he was intensely private and allowed people to believe his pen name was an irish heritage)

But, I do tend to think that "goodbye" might not be what anyone wants to actually say. it puts a cap on things. I've told my family there is nothing unsaid which they need worry about when I go, no apologies owed or expected (unless they tell me) and no big secret, and that if they remember me in my prime I will be happier than if they have to suffer seeing me beyond it. It's rational for me to believe the end is within view, at 62 it's closer than the other outcomes.

Further musings on his impending death by author Jake Seliger on his impending death from Cancer

Broken link