Godspeed, Stephen Hawking

Professor Hawking, you left the world a better place by making the universe more understandable to masses of humanity. You added significantly to the sciences of astrophysics and cosmology, and translated the infinite for our finite minds to comprehend. You loved life, even though you spent most of yours under a sword hanging from a thread.

On the other hand, you spent a great deal of your precious time here on a project you said was your greatest accomplishment, mathematically proving as you put it that the universe has no need of a Creator, telling us that our lives on this little planet offer us our one and only chance at existence.

Dr. Hawking, may you be wrong on both counts! May your radiant soul be soaring even now through boundless space and traversing vast galaxies and countless stars! And may your brilliant mind be occupied still, solving the riddles of the cosmos!