A friend of mine passed away Christmas day after a 2-year long battle with cancer. His second time fighting this terrible disease. He was only 33 years old. He left behind a young wife, and 2 very young children.
Him and I got to know each other through ball-hockey. Him and a few of his teammates (including his brother) joined my team. We eventually won a few championships. Over the next 5 years we bonded. He met his wife, I met my wife, both of us married and the team continued to thrive. Along came children and both of us too time off from playing to spend time at home. Our paths crossed again at functions for the children. He was a good guy. Considerate, always willing to stand up for a teammate and he was respected by everyone. He had the job, the house, the wife, and the sense of humour.
We had spoken several times in the past few months just to see how he was doing while fighting this terrible disease and each time he would sluff it off. He was sick, he knew that, and he knew beating this disease would be a hard battle but he was very positive and didn't want to dwell on his illness because it was like imposing his misfortune on others and that was not what he liked to do. Always positive, always considerate of others.
In the eulogy his wife gave, she mentioned the same things. He left them with a confidence that they would be able to continue without him. We all will. But we will never forget him for the person he was. He was a great guy.
Incidentially, his brother chose not to attend the funeral. Apparently old grudges are more important. I also feel sorry for his parents. They lost their son and have to deal with people talking about the poor decision their other son made. It is not about him but he wants people to talk about him, and they did. He's pathetic.
RIP my friend, my teammate. I'm sorry we never got to have that one last ball-hockey game so you could have retired on your terms. Everytime I go to play, I'll remember you and your number 12.
Gone but never forgotten.
I have cross-posted this post to my new blog as well. If you would like the URL for it, please send me an email and I will forward it along.
2 comments:
Its unfortunate when life is taken from anyone, under any circumstance. I happen to know of this person and their family.
What is truly pathetic is when people talk or gossip about matters that are none of their business, or they do not know all the facts. I also happen to know this brother was not in town during that time period. A blog is a very personal space to reflect ones true feelings, but is open to the public to comment as well. Always remember, what comes around...goes around.
Think you meant what goes around, comes around.
It was sad, but we've all moved on.
Blogs are not always open to comment and the blog owner could have easily deleted your comment. It was clearly raw and emotional to him and there is nothing wrong with that. You sound like someone very close to the situation and if you are a child or have children and the same thing happens (god forbid) see if you feel differently. Same thing happened to my family and it was brutal. Tore the family apart. And in our case, the person who missed the funeral was talking shit about the family to everyone and anyone and when they died, no one knew, no one came.
Sad.
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