It is Wednesday night, January 27, 2021. I was having a pretty good day today, with class going well, and I was just answering questions online and supporting my training partner this week.
Then, I saw a post on social media. A high school classmate of mine had passed away. I made an assumption, and I’m still riding that likelihood… he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer a few years ago, and I’m pretty sure that cancer ended up taking him.
It’s been a curse on his family, with several family members, including the baby of the family, Pat’s sister, Susan, who died from a different form of cancer a number of years ago. I’ll always remember Susan’s smile and positivity while she participated in so many high school theatrical productions.
I had Pat in some classes, but, at first, we didn’t have much in common, we ran with different crowds.
But there was something about Pat that caught my attention.
With all the students that I went to school with back in the seventies and early eighties, Pat was unique. In his back right pocket, there always seemed to be a handkerchief, and in his left back pocket there was that one thing that gave us something to talk about.
Pat always seemed to have a paperback book in his back pocket.
I remember asking him about it one time, and he joked, “What? You didn’t think I could read?”.
Yeah, I kind of screwed up that conversational opening. But we started talking about books we liked and we had something in common.
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We had been in touch through social media. and chatted from time to time. We talked about his cancer diagnosis when it first came down, and we talked about treatment.
And we talked about getting together and throwing back a bottle of better booze when he got a clean bill of health.
That didn’t happen.
I bought a bottle today. It’s a 19 year-old bottle of Glennfiddich. It’s a commemorative “Age of Discovery” edition, aged in a Bourbon cask. I’ll crack it here in a few days and raise a glass to Pat Maxey.
I think then I’ll set that bottle off to the side, and raise a glass with fellow Salina Central Class of ’81 classmates that drop by my digs as time goes by.
I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.
Peace y’all.
