People borrow pens and never return them. Perhaps he forgot who he borrowed a certain pen from, and doesn’t want to come back for it, so he gives everyone a pen. Or perhaps, he pays back a pen for the sake of whoever owed it.
Maybe, when the Niftar signed his name when he was Matzdik, he kept the pen and sent it with this guy.
Maybe it is meant to be a Nachama that just like when you write with a pen, even when you throw out the pen, the writing remains. So too, even though the person was Niftar, he left a lasting mark. That is actually the Zecher that we talk about when we say Yehi Zichro Baruch. But I can’t let myself get too serious about this, so we’ll stick with the second Mehalach.