My best friend passed away last night. He'd been admitted to the hospital on Sunday after fainting with his pulse and blood pressure at frighteningly low levels. He'd been having a wide variety of health problems for a while, and before this incident there had been discussion that he might require a pacemaker. He finally had the surgury yesterday, and seemed to emerge from it in good shape. Then, apparently there was a blood clot, and he passed away with no warning, still in the hospital.
I had visited him on Monday, and he'd been in good spirits, looking forward to resuming normal life once the pacemaker was in. I honestly thought I'd be seeing him again any day, and was looking forward to a new, healthy Greg who could join me on walks up at Hanging Rock, only a few miles from his home.
I called a lot of people today to share the news; Greg never had any trouble making friends, and he's going to be remembered by a lot of people. I promised to post information about the funeral here, but, alas, I don't have anything firm yet. Tentatively, there will be a memorial service for Greg Tuesday at 3pm. Hopefully I'll have definite information soon.
I've started work on a memorial post about Greg. This post has been about his death; what I want to do is tell you about his life, but it's more than I can process at the moment. Greg has been an ever-present part of my life for twenty five years. He was my intellectual sparring partner, my voice of wisdom, my ally in tough times, and the one person who I was always free to laugh loudly and freely with. It's going to take a little while to sort out an organize my thoughts.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
James, Ian called me yesterday with the news. I was really shocked and saddened for Greg, his family, you, and for me. I always enjoyed his company. He always had a way of making me think about things from a different angle, and he was so sarcastically funny. I know a lot of people will miss him.
Tim Blankenship
Thanks, Tim. Greg's sarcasm was a wonderful thing, wasn't it? I was frequently on the receiving end of it during our debates, but only enjoyed it all the more. It's wonderful to watch a true master of the art in action.
Post a Comment