LIFE AND DEATH, NOW

A GLIMPSE INTO THE LIFE OF ONE FAMILY

Fri Jun 17–22 1:15 p.m.

I dare to expose my personal life in the expectation that perhaps some of you can relate. It may be only a benefit to the writer to tell this story.

On May 12, 2022, I wrote a little essay here simply titled “Death”. It is the story of my best friend, Bill Wilson, coming here to my daughter’s home in Bryan, Texas, to die. He is now in the process, finally, of completing his journey.

I sit at his bedside, feel and watch, and feel. Without doubt, he now is in the final process. He mumbles. Only his wife, Carole (my ex), and Gina, our daughter, his loving nurses, can understand him.

Oh, my God, Carole just bent her ear over to him, listened, chuckled, and kissed him. My tears well up.

Bill and Carole have lived a tumultuous life together, a classic love/hate relationship. Love won out, as it wants to do, always. The “hate” was nether real nor lasting.

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We three go way back together, to high school. They seriously dated then, as did Carole and I, but never as “seriously”. Bill set the standard for manhood in Carole’s life. A big, strong man, fine football player, he made Carole feel small.

When I asked her why they didn’t stay together and marry, she said, “We would have killed each other”. They were made for each other, to share together what only each could learn from the other.