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[vr_trakowski]

 

My mother just emailed me to tell me that a family friend suddenly and unexpectedly died.  

I didn’t know him well.  He was my parents’ friend from church, about ten years my elder (though he didn’t look it).  Maybe seven or eight years ago he survived a life-altering physical event that had the side-effect of completely changing his personality as well.  I didn’t know him before that; afterwards he was a witty, light-hearted person who was deliberately wringing as much enjoyment as he could get out of a life restricted by permanent disability.*  

The only times I saw him were at holiday dinners - his family was all far away, so Mom would ask him over, though it was as much friendship as stray-collection.  Except right before this Christmas, when I went with my parents to a holiday display at the local park. He was a miniature train enthusiast and was a member of the group that had set up the (impressive!) train exhibition there.  

He had recently moved, and was planning out a huge setup for his own yard.  

It’s too much grief, in a sense; I didn’t know him that well.  He was visiting family just before he died, so they got to see one another.  But it still feels unfair, somehow.  

He never got his own trains set up…  

*He had the great good fortune to be comfortably well-off even though he could no longer work.  

Comments

[celli]

<3333

[vr_trakowski]

:`)