A friend of mine passed away in the wee hours this morning, after a nearly 3-year battle with leukemia. That was about 2.75 years longer than he was expected to live, given the type of leukemia he had and that the bone marrow he got from his brother did not cure him. He was not a close friend (although he was to a few of my good friends, and they will be taking this a lot harder than I), but enough that I had a chance to be inspired with the grace and toughness he and his family fought his illness.
I last saw him a couple months ago, and even though he was clearly not doing well, he not only didn't want to talk about it, but he was trying to crack jokes and keep the conversation on anything but him. I was at our mutual friend's house, who lives next door to Tom. They also worked in the same field. Our friend was bitching about some pretty mundane office stuff -- like I'm sure we've all done, whether an actual office or the bad beat/run bad stories -- and Tom seemed to truly empathize with our friend about all this little crap.
I'm sure I'll have a little better perspective my next poker session or two. I'll close with Tom's admonishment to all of us in his emails and journal entries: "Get busy living."
1 comment:
Very solid quote. I feel like the best way to pay respect to friends and family we lose in the game of life is to live our lives to the fullest. Very sorry for your loss.
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