Death of a Friend

The is waiting over; cancer has once again taken someone from me. Survivors come out of the disease changed people sometimes and in most cases they are better people for having lived through the fear and butchery of the disease and the cure. But sometimes people die and this is the case today.

I built a fire in the very back of the property to have a staging point to get rid of some of the vines and underbrush there. There’s a big Oak limb lying nearby and it needs to be cut up and burned. I got the fire burning hot and got one section of the limb chopped up. I sent a picture of the fire to a friend of mine who was dying of cancer. His nephew called me to tell me cancer had won.

So I’ve spent the last couple of hours putting the fire out and making plans to go to see the family and making plans for the funeral. 

He leaves behind a wife and two sons, his father, three sisters, many nieces and nephews, and a legacy of one of the best unknown musicians I ever knew.

So I’ll be off the net for a while and dealing with reality at its most real.

If you thought about quitting smoking this would be a very good time to stop thinking about it and doing it. I’m going to go bury someone I’ve known for over four and a half decades because as many times as he thought about quitting he never did.

Yesterday someone I know ran a half marathon. Today some I knew is dead from smoking. Today someone I know is enjoying the satisfaction of having worked hard for good health. Tomorrow I go to bury a friend.

Your choices affect not only your life but the lives of those around you, the lives of those people who care about you and love you.

You can choose to kill yourself slowly or you can choose to live, but whatever choice you make, you’re making it for the rest of us too.

Take Care,

Mike