Thursday night, I got the bad news. My former neighbor and friend, Jimmy had died. He was up in Nashville at Vanderbilt hospital for heart surgery and passed on the operating table.
It hit me pretty hard. I think it is because it was the same heart valve replacement surgery that my Dad was supposed to have had. The doctors decided that Dad was not strong enough to endure the surgery. And that made me so mad. How dare they! I wasn't ready to hear that. But I know now that they were correct. Dad did not live much longer and was able to go home, as he wished, to pass quietly in his chair.
The difference was that Dad knew he was not a candidate for surgery, even before the surgeon turned him down. But Jimmy was so confident that the surgery would go well. That he would be home by today. He had so much that he was eagerly looking forward to doing this spring. He was so confident, that no one expected complications.
The funeral on Sunday was somber. It should have been a celebration of his 88 year life and his home-going. But the shock factor overshadowed it all.
My only comfort being that I will see my friend again someday...
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