Thursday, March 05, 2009

A Friend Gone Too Young

Many of my friends online, as in real life, are peers...we are the same age and grew up in the same time and are in the prime of life. When a peer dies, at our age, it can be a wake up call. I'm 43. Will Gunther was 47. Between you and me, that is far too young.

I attended Will's wake. We were Jaycees together and the wake was a kind of reunion of sorts among the old Berea Jaycee crowd. We will be meeting soon under much more normal circumstances. It was good to catch up with people that I haven't seen since the chapter dissolved five years ago.

Kim (Will's SO) was holding up very well. Then again, much of her life for nearly the last two years was tied up in helping Will beat the cancer. She appeared relieved. The way she knew things were different...she had to use the keys to get into the house. Her house was locked for the first time in nine months. The last nine months of Will's life he was attended by hospice.

In the end, he was bedridden and unable to speak. If relief was the emotion Kim felt most, I can relate.

I can tell you from personal experience that I was there with my own father. His heart failed him, ultimately. But it didn't last the nearly two years Will's lingering episode did. Nowhere near. But I was relieved when my father passed, if for no other reason that the pain of my mother's death which weighed upon him heavily was finally gone.

Another old Jaycee friend put together a video tribute to Will's life. Will enjoyed himself. He had a great smile. He was always very calm and laid back. I think had most of you met Will, you would have liked him, too.

When people die you can't help but think, even if just for a moment, of your own mortality. But when a person is your own age when death comes, you think of things like justice and how wrong it is that a person in their prime of life won't get to be old.

That won't happen for Will and it sucks that it won't.

But, for the friends he left behind the hope of greater life that is still ahead is what motivates us all to keep going all out everyday.

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