All we ever do is say goodbye

Losing something or someone you have cared about and loved so much is always extremely hard. Especially when you spend time with a beautiful and lovely being, when you take care of it since the first time you saw it, and you feel like this time you made a friend that would never ever leave you.

That's what happened to me and my flatmates when we met Geraldine; she was gorgeous, tiny, a little bit chubby but not too much, healthy and strong: she looked like none and nobody could have ever taken away her charismatic halo shining around herself.
When my flatmates and I met Geraldine, we decided with any doubt that she could come to live with us and become part of our Dublin family.
We didn't have that much space in our apartment (there is not even an oven in the stupid accommodation on campus, although this is another story) but that tiny pretty being made such a good impression on us that we didn't want to leave her on the cold streets of Dublin, even if, maybe, it would have been much better for the poor Geraldine.
Time passed by, college work got harder and harder and we were all so busy minding our own business that we neglected the poor Geraldine.

She has never been one of this very talkative friends that cannot wait to spill on you every single problem that happens to them, she has always been the quite one in the apartment. That's why when she got sick, none of us realized how bad it was till her body started to show off the advanced symptoms of a mortal hilliness which she was more likely to get, sooner or later, because of her nature.

When my Belgium flatmate Nana found Geraldine sad and alone hiding in a corner of our apartment, she clearly understood what was going on: our beloved Geraldine was at the end...I mean...It's hard even to type this word on the keyboard..but she was dying.

Nana brought all of us to the attention of the tragedy that was about to happen, no matter the time spent on Google trying to find out if there was any cure for Geraldine, every website we opened was a further confirmation that were only three letters we could use in this case : F-A-T ?! Of course not!Geraldine was a bit chubby, as I said, but she wasn't fat (even if that's how people categorized her) but Obesity wasn't the reason why she got sick; R-U-M?!Again wrooooong! Geraldine was dying , for sure drinking would have maybe alleviated her sufferance and ours, but it was not the answer to our problem. H-U-G?!?! Cold! Our friend had a terrible mortal hilliness, even if hugging her and giving to her some comfort was the best we could do, any attempt to save her life with a hug would have been useless.
Unfortunately the three letters used by every website was the E-N-D.

Our lovely Geraldine, best fat-plant (in specific she was an Echeveria) an apartment would have ever wished for, quite spectator of everything was going on in our living room, loyal friend,modest and positive, tragically passed away yesterday November, 10th, 2012.

Yesterday morning, after realizing that there was nothing else we could do to save Geraldine's life, we all gathered in our living room/kitchen with her.
It was a very sad moment: I started to play (and sing) "All we ever do is say goodbye" by John Mayer from Youtube, while the girls were attending one minute of silence in front of the stove. They kept cooking their lunch , I kept singing, I think their eyes dropped some tears but probably it was because of the onions they were cutting.
We still have to decide a location to bury our Geraldine so please if you have any ideas where to find a "plant-graveyard" let me know. It would be extremely appreciated.

Goodbye Geraldine.

May your leaves rest in peace.