One of the good ones got away

Dear Bob,

I'm sorry I didn't write to you and Penny more. I wish that I had, thanks for the bar fridge you lent to me in university, I know I would have loved to meet Jeff and that we would have been good friends. I never knew how to tell you how sorry I was that he was taken from you too soon. I was really awkward as a teenager and couldn't comprehend what you and Penny had to go through when it was time to take him off life support. I wish that I had known you better, mom mentioned that you and Penny had been childhood sweethearts.

It upset me then how raw the deal you'd been given was. I've always been in awe of your resilience, that life could throw you so many curves and you both had each other to make it through them.

I'm so proud that you liked the card I sent to you at the hospital and that Penny brought you the one I made her. I felt again that there were no words to describe my feelings and convey how upset that it made me that you were sick. I stuck to positivity because that was you in a nutshell. Always moving forward full of life itself. In the face of everything, never faltering you loved your life, you travelled you saw and you lived.

When you told my mother that you loved my cards and were so proud of me I beamed. When you said, "We have her address now, we're going to thank that girl, we'll have to get together," all I could think was how much I wanted that. You gave mom a thumbs up as they wheeled you into ICU and I have no doubt that you tried as hard as you could to fight that infection, but the Chemo didn't give you anything to work with Bob. It's not fair and it's not right, at 60 you were just getting started.

It was too soon for you and not fair to Penny, there are no words for the loss that she feels, you were always her rock. I'm angry Bob, they gave you a 50-50 chance, which is more than they gave mom, it's not fair that an infection got you first, not fair at all. You know you were loved because you loved so fiercely and were so kind. If I have learned anything from you it's the generosity you showed me, the dogged pursuit of of living and never giving up. My regret is that I wasn't able to learn more from you. I'll miss you Bob and so will the rest of us, you were one of a kind. I'll always think of you at your cottage on the lake in the morning, you'll stay there for me forever, where I know you were most happy.

K