Read the Moving Eulogy Letter Leonard Cohen’s Son Wrote About His Father

Leonard Cohen’s son Adam produced and played on his father’s final record, You Want It Darker, and was often a spokesman for Leonard in his final months. Adam Cohen has maintained that public communications role in the wake of his father’s death and burial, yesterday releasing a eulogy for Leonard on Facebook. “There’s so much I wish I could thank him for, just one last time,” he wrote.

If you can bear shedding a few more tears for Leonard Cohen’s death, find the full statement and its accompanying photo below:

My sister and I just buried my father in Montreal. With only immediate family and a few lifelong friends present, he was lowered into the ground in an unadorned pine box, next to his mother and father. Exactly as he’d asked. As I write this I’m thinking of my father’s unique blend of self-deprecation and dignity, his approachable elegance, his charisma without audacity, his old-world gentlemanliness and the hand-forged tower of his work. There’s so much I wish I could thank him for, just one last time. I’d thank him for the comfort he always provided, for the wisdom he dispensed, for the marathon conversations, for his dazzling wit and humor. I’d thank him for giving me, and teaching me to love Montreal and Greece. And I’d thank him for music; first for his music which seduced me as a boy, then for his encouragement of my own music, and finally for the privilege of being able to make music with him. Thank you for your kind messages, for the outpouring of sympathy and for your love of my father.

The world owes Mr. Cohen a similar, boundless debt of gratitude. Revisit his 20 best songs here, and find Paste’s own remembrance here.