SAYING GOODBYE

Recently on a Sunday afternoon, as I was talking to TLW (The Little Woman), the phone rang and it was a classmate of mine from high school. I know this man since I was in fourth grade, and once we graduated from high school. I lost touch with him.

When I organized the class reunion with the committee, I had his number and called him to tell him about the plans. We had a long conversation on the phone and talked about everything that had happened to us. We met at the reunion, met his wife and life went on.

Then last year, his wife told me that he was suffering from cancer and how hard it was for her because she had a 50 plus mile drive everyday for his treatments. He was in the hospital and she faithfully was at his side. Then the unbelievable happened, she had a car accident and the air bag caused some damage in her stomach, revealing she had cancer too!

Soon after the accident, she died from the cancer and my friend was left alone.

And so the phone-call that Sunday afternoon, and my friend telling me he has stage 4 cancer. We talked for a while and he told me about his current situation and all the news about his life. I told him I would call him more often to check out how he was.

I hung up and thought about it for a while, realizing this call was a goodbye call. After telling about his cancer, he never mentioned anything about it again as if it is acceptable and life goes on.

I hope I can deal with that like he does. Then I hope he thinks he doesn’t realize what is really happening. I don’t know what to think. I wonder if 60 some-odd years is enough in this life? Saying goodbye is hard enough sometimes, but that is the hardest way I would imagine.