Saying So Long

I'm never sure that I should write the type of blog I'm about to author. They become about you, and I don't really want this to be about me. I think you'll understand.

A dear friend died yesterday. Forgive me if I stay cryptic and vague, but most of you wouldn't know him anyway, and as the family has made no announcements yet I feel it's a matter of their privacy that I not get too specific. 

Still, I owe the man. He was 10 or 11 years older than me, but we'd known each other more than fifty years. Over those years we've had many good conversations, and a lot of good natured joking and jiving went on between us. Yet what I was most grateful for was in how he kept in touch with me, at least once a week, every week for better than a year, after my Dad passed. Many, many of you did too, and believe me, those kindnesses will never be forgotten, will always be treasured. Yet right this minute his are on my mind.

He didn't have to make it a point to check in. He didn't have to offer such regular support. But he did, and still did at least with some regularity, ever since. 

His passing is a genuine shock. Godspeed, you old Lutheran. Trust me, he'll laugh at that quip.

Death Comes Knocking

There was an old woman who used to live down the street, I'll call her Mrs. Cloyce just to give her a name, who regularly bugged me brother Phil for help. Now, I'm all for helping someone in need, especially the elderly. Phil is too. Yet Mrs. Cloyce had become extreme in asking for favors. It had become constant.

I don't recall details, only that the bulk of it was nonsense yet difficult stuff which me brother dreaded. He came to loathe seeing Mrs. Cloyce come up the walk.

She began to catch onto that, though. One day after asking Phil for yet another pesky favor Mrs. Cloyce opined, "I bet you'd rather see Death come along than me, ha ha!"

'You aren't far off', thought Phil to himself. Then he went on and helped the old woman.

Celebrations of Life

Today I feel that I will be going from one extreme to the other. This morning I will be at the funeral of a friend. This evening I will be at my older brother's 50th birthday party. I was struck by the incongruence of these events.

When remarking on this to a friend, he replied that each is really a celebration of life: one on a new stage, another still chugging along here on Earth. I like that. It makes the disparity more understandable. Same idea, different emphasis.

Thanks, Ed.