LETTER FROM A FRIEND GABRIEL MET 11 YEARS AGO

Re: On behalf of Gabriel Buchmann IMPORTANT
From: gunisfjunis@webaid.se
To: ninabuchmann@hotmail.com

Hello Nina and Fatima,

Thank you for your letter and for the tragic news about Gabriel. I am so
sorry for your loss! I am so sorry that Gabriel is no longer with you,
with us and with the world. Its difficult to express my feelings since
english is not my mother tongue.

My name is Gunilla, I live in Sweden.
I met Gabriel at Kibbutz Gaaton about 11 years ago.
I remember the first time I saw him coming into the room where we all volunteers had our meals.
I saw at once that he was a kind and interesting person and so he turned out to be.
What is written in the blog about Gabriel, that he was paying full attention is so true.
Sometimes I almost felt it scary in a way, getting all that attention. I have never met anyone being more entire.
I was quite lonely at the kibbutz, but then came Gabriel and I had a true friend. I remember that when he left the kibbutz he had a book and he wanted people to write in it. I think I only wrote something like this: "a friend is someone who knows everything about you and still likes you".
I remember Gabriel asked if I was not going to write anything more but for me that said everything I felt.
He was something extra, something that could not be written down even in a novel.

Last june, 2008, I was about to meet Gabriel in Germany and also meet another girl that we met on the kibbutz. But personal things in my life made me cancell that trip and I feel sad and guilty now for not gooing.
I do wish it was possible to be able to turn back time. I guess I thought I will meet him another time in the future when I feel better. But from this I can maybe learn that there is only now and the future is something we never know anything about.
I will try to live more in the present. Just like Gabriel.
Even though me and Gabriel havent had a lot of contact during these years I have
a big sadness in me when I think of his death.
I understand what an amazing guy he was for his nearest but also for everyone he met and for the world.
In Sweden we have a say that "the one god loves the most he>takes first".
Maybe it was like this with Gabriel.
I will finish this letter now. My thoughts is with you .

Lots of love

Gunilla Ottersten