“God that was funny.  Never mind Lara’s response, I thought Dane was going to spontaneously combust when Bette and Tina started making out right there in the dining room of her precious country club.”

“That sure was a good day” Shane said wistfully.  “God life was so much less complicated back then.  You know it’s just a pattern we’ve fallen into not talking about her.  It came from a good place in the beginning.  It was so raw at the start Al for all of us but particularly for you.   In those first few dark months I wasn’t sure if you were ever going to come back to us.  That spark that defines you was out for so long and talking about Dana just seemed to keep you rooted in that dark place so I guess we all figured we had to sort of keep our thoughts about her to ourselves to give you some time to heal.  Then slowly the spark came back.  Personally I think you ignited it somewhere along that zip line in Whistler.  It flickered for a while you know, it was there but it didn’t shine through.  I’d look at you and it was like ninety percent sadness but this little 10 percent of hope had appeared.   Then Tasha came into your life and slowly things seemed to get better.  She allowed you start living a little again.  She tapped into the old Alice in a way none of us had seemed to be able to.  By that stage though we were in this routine I suppose and nobody was sure what the reaction would be if we brought up Dana so we just let it go on.  I never meant to let you think for a second that we were pretending she’d never existed we were trying to protect you and if I’m really honest trying to protect ourselves.”

“Wow Yoda…that’s a lot of words!  I can understand that I suppose.  You should know though I’m getting there too – to that place where you can remember the good times in isolation.  In fact I was just thinking what a relief it was this morning on my jog when something come back to me and it wasn’t followed by waves of sadness.  You guys don’t have to protect me anymore.  I’m not saying there isn’t still a big deep wound there but it’s healing, every day it gets a little easier.”