The wake for my friend was last night, and it was a little strange being in this enormous crowd of people who had all known Richard because I didn't know more than 20% of them. There were science fiction fans, gamers, LARPers, former co-workers, and combinations of the above; also, an old girlfriend who had lost track of him for twenty-five years and was appalled that when she finally found him he was on the verge of dying. I was able to do her some good, relieve her fears about breaking up with him years ago (it was her, not him, and he'd figured that out), and in a way that seems to have helped, because today the pain seems to have diminished a bit.
Either that, or this cold is making me concentrate on the ills of the body as opposed to the ache in the heart.