My lifelong best friend (we met in the seventh grade) developed Parkinson's in 2003 and it finally took him last summer.
At his memorial, this is what I said.
(Re-printing it here because Overmountain needs to know the bottom line)
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Lifelong best friends.
It's a concept that Hollywood and novelists are fond of, but rarely happens in real life. Not literally.
You might become super-tight and "on the same frequency" with someone at any time, but if it happens when you are young things usually change as you grow older; and if it happens when you're adults there is no shared history.
But staying tight for 56 years---from crazy-goofy kid adventures, to attending high school prom as a foursome, to racing motorcycles, to open-ended road trips, to helping each other with jobs, kids, and growing businesses, to holiday banquets, and on and on---almost never happens.
It happened to me, though. Keith and I met in seventh grade at an audition for a garaqge band "guitarist" (I shouldn't laugh... I was never very good, but Keith had enough talent to actually make a living as a musician for a while, years later), and the magic and fun never stopped. His personality never changed, his sense of humor never changed, and his overall decency, honesty, and integrity never changed. Indeed, we never had so much as an argument, never mind fought over anything. Not once.
In short, the magic positive energy that appeared out of nowhere as we played Ventures tunes while waiting our turn to try out for the "band", never, ever stopped.
Until a few days ago, when Parkinson's and the Hell that accompanies it concluded things for us.
The size and depth of the smoking crater in my world is impossible to describe.
Why am I telling you this? So you can more clearly understand what an unbelievably rare and special man Keith was... and as a reminder that even the best things, the strongest things, don't last forever. That whatever you have in the back of your mind to "one day" do with the people you care about, or things you want to tell them, do it NOW. Do not wait.
Do. Not. Wait.
George out
At his memorial, this is what I said.
(Re-printing it here because Overmountain needs to know the bottom line)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lifelong best friends.
It's a concept that Hollywood and novelists are fond of, but rarely happens in real life. Not literally.
You might become super-tight and "on the same frequency" with someone at any time, but if it happens when you are young things usually change as you grow older; and if it happens when you're adults there is no shared history.
But staying tight for 56 years---from crazy-goofy kid adventures, to attending high school prom as a foursome, to racing motorcycles, to open-ended road trips, to helping each other with jobs, kids, and growing businesses, to holiday banquets, and on and on---almost never happens.
It happened to me, though. Keith and I met in seventh grade at an audition for a garaqge band "guitarist" (I shouldn't laugh... I was never very good, but Keith had enough talent to actually make a living as a musician for a while, years later), and the magic and fun never stopped. His personality never changed, his sense of humor never changed, and his overall decency, honesty, and integrity never changed. Indeed, we never had so much as an argument, never mind fought over anything. Not once.
In short, the magic positive energy that appeared out of nowhere as we played Ventures tunes while waiting our turn to try out for the "band", never, ever stopped.
Until a few days ago, when Parkinson's and the Hell that accompanies it concluded things for us.
The size and depth of the smoking crater in my world is impossible to describe.
Why am I telling you this? So you can more clearly understand what an unbelievably rare and special man Keith was... and as a reminder that even the best things, the strongest things, don't last forever. That whatever you have in the back of your mind to "one day" do with the people you care about, or things you want to tell them, do it NOW. Do not wait.
Do. Not. Wait.
George out
