I really don't know what to say

I created a new entry in my PDA Address Book today: Death anniversary.

My friend Eugene passed away last Saturday. I found out today, when my mom called to say the obituary was in the local paper (he'd been living in another country). I really don't know what to say.

Facts are paltry: cancer, five years, a daughter the same age.

I pondered as I walked out to lunch and back --- alone, not by design, but simply because everyone else had other lunch plans. I still don't know what to say, except maybe to tell his little girl that her father was a good man and a good friend when I needed one, and the world is a quieter, duller place without him.