So Long Whistling Bill

I lost a buddy this week. He and I had a different kind of relationship. I didnt meet him until he was overtaken by alzheimers disease. He never talked, just whistled and looked at me with bewildering confused eyes.
Whistling Bill had been quite successful in life. A successful businessman, family man, and very prominent in the community. He was a man of importance at one time, and from what I was told "a good man". I would often times find Bill walking the hallways, not knowing where he was, or where he was going, just walking and whistling as he went on his way. I would stop him and ask him how he was doing, but he would just look off in the distance with faded eyes as if I didnt exist in his world. This went one for over a year.
And then God gave me a gift. One day as I was sharing about God, I noticed Bill was looking at me. His eyes were following me. He wasn't whistling and there was an attention in his eyes I had never seen before. He was nodding and even smiling as I spoke, and for that moment in time I knew he heard me and understood what I was saying. When it came time to pray he even bowed his head to pray, and I even placed my hand on his head and asked God to heal him of that awful disease...fulling expecting God to do it. When I finished praying he looked at me with moist eyes and nodded...and in that look I saw something. I saw all the years he had lived, all the trials he had been through, all the pain he was living with now, and the acknowledgement that God was his hope. I know he and I had both been given a gift, if only for a few moments, it was a gift.
I went to talk to him a few minutes later. The clouded look had returned in his eyes...he didnt see me anymore and he just struggled to his feet and headed down the hallway...whistling as he went. Everytime I saw him after that day I would look to see if there was recognition in his eyes, but it never came again...and I found out he had passed away early this week.
So Bill, this post is for you...you are the first person I loved that never spoke a word to me, yet taught me so much. I applaud your courage, and your life, and my greatest joy is that I will see you again, and when I do.... we can talk. And when were done talking...maybe you could whistle a tune for old times sake. Good bye my dear friend.