Here is something I found tonight that Matt had written to me about goodbyes, and the origin of the word "goodbye" I used to always tell him to never say "goodbye" because it made me feel too sad.
Matt's words: 1 January 2009
"It me...
On my site, someone wrote about 'Au Revoir' being better than saying goodbye... Because 'Au Revoir' means 'till we meet again' - perhaps our word for farewell is more 'final' - but I looked up the word origin for goodbye, and it originally meant 'God be with ye'... And they used to spell it 'godbwye' - very interesting... the bw was an early abbreviation for 'be with'... And it is interesting how God became good.... In Old English the word 'good' was actually spelled 'god' and the o was a long o...
Now, we don't even think about god when we say goodbye or good.... Though, we sometimes say goodness and godliness are allied....
but I understand now more, about why you don't like to say 'goodbye' - it too harsh and scary... It's always good to know that we meet again...
Wuv,
Me"