A Day for Rejoicing, a Day for Mourning

Yesterday, October 19, was a bittersweet day for me indeed. On the bright side, my mother celebrated her 84th birthday. Within the past several years, my mom has had open heart surgery, knee replacements, and lord knows how many trips to doctors, hospitals, and rehab centers. Still, she carries on. Ever since my father passed away she has said that she is ready to go. However, good family genes are confounding the situation. All her brothers and sisters (with the exception of a brother who died in an auto accident) lived long lives. With my mom's medical history, I would not be shocked if she passed away at any time. With her family history, however, I would also not be surprised to see her live to celebrate many more birthdays.

The down side of yesterday was that a friend from work was buried. Tom was a member of the maintenance crew and always stopped to bs with me about softball. Yeah -- two softball junkies with broken-down bodies reliving their past glories. It didn't dawn on me until yesterday that Tom was the only person outside of my family who came out to a softball game just to see me play.

I was horrified to realize at the end of the day that I had missed the brief visitation hour before his funeral. However, I am reminded of Wolfsheim's quote from The Great Gatsby: "We need to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead."

Miss you, man. Show those dudes up in heaven that the stroke can still be there long after the legs have gone.