It sometimes takes the most tragic events to bring people together, to unite them and to reunite them.

I returned home a couple of weeks ago under sad circumstances: to attend my uncle’s funeral.

The youngest of seven children, Ryan White was a loving man who cared for all of his family members and friends and also goofed on them, never wasting a moment to make a joke about someone and quickly bringing levity to any moment.

It was unexpected, a shock to everyone that knew him. It took those affected by it and jolted them out of their everyday lives, hitting them so hard that the pain would overwhelm them at once and leave them feeling numb yet still emotional.

The fact that someone so close to you is now gone, no longer a part of your life, is a cruel and harsh truth to swallow, one that you’re never certain you’ll be able to keep down.

When you find yourself in this position, to have to face the rest of your life with a small piece of it permanently gone, the one certain comfort you can draw is that which comes from those closest to you, even if you haven’t seen some of them in years.

My uncle’s funeral brought my aunt from Florida to Ohio for the first time in years. The rest of my extended family traveled to our hometown for the day and the family of my uncle’s wife, as well as their good friends, neighbors and coworkers who came to the funeral home to pay their respects. There were even teachers, some that I had in school years ago, and friends of his young daughter and son that attended to lend their support.

With such a collection of people gathered on behalf of one person, several of them approached one another to catch up on life, to lend a joke to laugh with and a shoulder to cry on.

On this day, there was no drama, no hard feelings for others, no grudges held. All of that was let go so that everyone could embrace one another and support them, for they too had lost an important part of their lives.

Just as tragic events reunite people, they also remind them of and sometimes reawaken them to the importance of family. Sitting next to my parents and two brothers during the wake; my older brother’s girlfriend watching over their baby daughter, my niece, close to the side; my uncles, aunt and grandmother around us; and Ryan’s wife and kids with her family also close by, a thought that I had always held was more firmly grasped then: these are the people that, from beginning to end and right at the center of it all, are the most important people to me.

These are the people with whom I should never lose contact, whom I should always remain connected to no matter what.

An empty place had been made in our family, and though we will never forget what was once there, the best thing for us to do is to come closer and fill that space and the spaces made in our past with renewed love for one another.

I believe it’s what my uncle would have wanted.