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The unthinkable comes even to those who defy the ravages of time by ferujkll sdff
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The unthinkable comes even to those who defy the ravages of time |
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Business,Business News,Business Opportunities
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Six years ago, I wrote a column for a local newspaper about death.I talked about the passing of my parents, a baby granddaughter, mybest friend from years earlier in Vermont. But as painful as these memories were, they seemed almost abstractwhen viewed through the filters of time. I could explain,rationalize them: Four hours after my mom died, our firstgrandchild was born in the same hospital, so there was naturalnessabout it, a passing and a beginning, and we mourned and rejoiced atthe same time. Our granddaughter suffered severe birth defects, and her life wouldhave been painful and difficult. I hate to say her passing was ablessing, because her life itself was a blessing.
I wrote in that column: I guess my point here is that every timedeath has peered into my window, I was able to avoid looking him inthe eye. Tragic events can drive some people to the bottle, others tosupport groups, the pious to their churches. But I m a writer, andmy keyboard is my catharsis. It is here that I turn when I needrelease.
And it was here that I turned six years ago when we heard thestunning news that a friend had passed. No warning, no symptoms.One morning, she was just gone; her fire and spirit snuffed out. I closed that column with these words: This time, death didn t just knock on the window, he came crashingthrough my front door, and forced me to do something I ve managedto avoid all my life come face-to-face with my own mortality. It s unsettling.
I think I ll go hug my wife. I did hug Loretta. But I was wrong. Death didn t just crashthrough my front door.
He moved in, sat at my table and stayed. A little over a year after our friend s death, my wife of 43 years who stood by my side at her funeral was gone, too. Other than penning her obituary and eulogy, I still haven t beenable to write about that. Two years later, I was having a Happy Hour beer at my favorite pubwhen my cell phone rang. It was my granddaughter in Vermont.
HE S DEAD! she screamed hysterically. DAD S DEAD! My son-in-law had come home from work, said he didn t feel well,then dropped dead on the floor of a heart attack. He was 47; nohistory of problems, no warning signs. Matt was more than a son-in-law; he was a son.
He and my daughterhad dated since junior high school. We suffered and celebrated withher through the trials and tribulations of teenaged love. He wasinterchangeable with our own five kids, a fixture in our home. Andin our family. And he, too, was gone.
Just like that. In the blink of an eye. Then came the unthinkable. I got married when I was still in high school, had two sons, wasdivorced five years later, remarried and had five more kids.
Thedivorce was not amicable, and I had no contact with my sons for 40years. In 2000, they found me via the Internet; we reconnected and theymelded with my new family as if they d grown up together. My oldest boy, Tony, moved here to Cape Coral, Florida, in 2009.Last Thanksgiving, the years he d spent abusing his body tooktheir toll and he was admitted to the hospital with liver failure,among other things. Three days before Christmas, his ailing bodygave up and his systems simply shut down. He was 54.
Tony was in my life for the first five years of his life and thelast 11, for which I will be eternally grateful. I guess as we get older, we have to expect more visits from myunwelcome guest. But that doesn t make it easier. Death is change.I don t know about you, but I don t much like change these days. Some people can pass through life without making a ripple.
RonHorgan wasn t one of them. From the Canadian border to the Gulf ofMexico, he left a broad trail of hearts he had touched and friendshe had made. It was Ron that we comforted when he lost his wife those six yearsago. And it was him who comforted us in our times of need.
He wasour bartender, our friend and a whole lot more. Ron was one of those rare people whose kind and gentle spirit madeevery room brighter, every joke funnier, every laugh happier. As he approached 80, he made a mockery of his years. He ran throughlife with an exuberance and energy that left men half his agegasping in his wake, dancing on the bar while all we could do waslook on in awe. But ultimately, we can only defy the ravages of time for so long.Eventually, the years will win.
Not long ago, Ron was diagnosed with a form of leukemia so rarethat only about 100 cases have been identified. The doctors knewlittle about it, so they couldn t treat it. Transfusions helpedfor a while, but then stopped working. Then he was gone.
And now I turn again to my keyboard. Ron s legions of friends will quietly mourn his loss and raucouslycelebrate his life. Then we ll go on with our own lives, everknowing that we ve lost something precious and important. And through it all, my unwelcome visitor sits at my table, grinninga mirthless grin and biding his time. He has plenty of it. I am Batteries writer, reports some information about dvd rewritable disc , memory stick produo.
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