We met, oh, six years ago? at a YULblog meeting. He was young, social, full of life and angry. Our names sounded sort of the same. I’m the oldest of five, he was the youngest of five. He was in an interracial relationship, I’m from a mixed-race family. We had little in common but there was a feeling of kinship anyway.
Three years ago he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
Two weeks ago we took him for a drive in the country. We thought that sitting in the car being driven around would be about all the activity he could handle, and as it turned out we had overestimated him.
His goal was to make it to his 36th birthday, which would have been November 8th.
He didn’t make it.
You know what they say about doing whatever it is now, not putting it off because there may never be a later? Yeah. What they say.
Carpe diem.