Thirtysomething

More With the Sad

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about Ron's friend who has terminal cancer. Ron and a group of his friends went to visit this friend this past weekend. All the guys were pretty nervous about it, because none would it, but this was essentially a visit to say goodbye while Bob was still well enough to be at home and have a beer.

The situation with Bob has clearly gotten to Ron. I mean, he's avoided it. Avoided talking about it. Avoided dealing with it. So, I was really proud of him for going to visit Bob because I wasn't sure he would. Although, I was sure he'd regret NOT visiting him. Just like he regrets not checking in on Battle, even though he didn't actually know Battle was dying.

As part of Ron's job, he deals with death all the time (okay, maybe not all the time, but often enough to be pretty much unphased by it), but as one might imagine, it's different when the person dying is someone you know. Someone who used to be your drinking buddy. Someone your age.

Bob had a frank, sidebar conversation with Ron, presumably because he thought Ron could handle--more so than the other friends--the topic of death. Ron said he seems at peace with all but two things: that his nearly-three year old son will forget him and that his wife (who is younger than me) will allow this to define the rest of her life and won't pursue new happiness.

I just can't imagine.

Labels: friends, random

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 9:58 AM