FAREWELL TO A FRIEND

For as long as I have carried newspapers,just about three years,there has been a man who only came in on Sundays to help his friend deliver some of the papers she was responsible for. This past Sunday they were in his truck,watching a 3″ TV screen while we waited for the truck to deliver the papers from Chicago. All seemed normal.

Later that afternoon I got a call saying that Bill had died.  All I could do was keep saying ‘what? what? what?’ over and over. It all seemed surreal. Apparently he’d gone home and went to sleep and when he got up to use the bathroom started yelling to his wife that he couldn’t breathe. The paramedics couldn’t revive him.

He was just a year younger than me and physically we were strikingly similar. Both of us had had a quadruple bypass,were Type II diabetics,both had pacemakers,both have emphysema from smoking and both of us have sleep apnea. The big difference was I quit smoking a year and a half ago after puffing for 40 years and he still continued to smoke. I finally admitted to myself that the reason I could quit cold turkey without so much as a craving was that being as close to death as I was scared the hell out of me. I felt like God was saying, ‘this is your last warning.’ Not being able to see my grandkids grow up or see my wife’s pretty face anymore was all the incentive I needed.

There is not a doubt in my mind that if I had not quit I would not be here blogging with you today. My fate is likely to end up the same way as Bill,but maybe I can manage a little more time here on Earth. A few more Christmases,birthdays,weddings,ball games and holding hands on the couch with DW. Bill had talked about going to the doctor Wednesday to see about a smoking cessation program. Now the point is moot and all I can think is that there but for the Grace of God go I. Cigarettes cost me a friend. They will one day cost my family. That is the cross I bear.