tonight’s agenda

Obviously, the debate will be center stage this evening. But what else would a former political reporter watch? I’ve admitted I don’t like politics but without democracy our country wouldn’t be what it is today.

Sure, we have our faults. The floors are cracked because of greed, power, and money. Yet it’s all we have. So, I do stay informed.

But as I watch Harris and Trump go at it, my mind will likely focus on lost friends. I will also think about the meaning of friendship.

I learned yesterday a friend of mine passed away of brain cancer. She lived four doors down from me. We had been friends since I moved in the mobile home park seven years ago.

It was her second battle with the disease. And although I’m saddened for her passing, I’m happy she’s no longer in any pain. She suffered greatly.

This past Christmas, Linda (that’s her) and her ex-husband, Tom, gave me this Christmas Card. It was as I began my own fight with cancer. No, they didn’t live together any longer, but Tom was always there.

They loved each other. But couldn’t be together. She often told me how she hated that she loved him because of the time he’d spend caring for her. One time she broke down in an embrace with me. She was crying and she said she didn’t have the strength to tell him. She also said how much she cared for me being there when he wasn’t. I shed my own tears along with her fearing my own impending fight.

Cancer sucks, we’ve all heard that and it true. The emotions it brings may not be the killer but can hurt even more. I loved Linda as my friend and will miss her dearly. May she rest in peace and pain free for eternity.

But that’s not where this story ends. In 2021 I had a colectomy after a colonoscopy detected a polyp that the doctors couldn’t snare normally. The biopsy on that came back negative for cancer yet I spent five days in recovery.

Next week I go back for a three-year follow-up procedure. And I find myself thinking about the dreaded disease once again along with another lost friend. Not of cancer but of misunderstandings.

Linda had her opportunity to tell me how she cared. Now I want that lost friend of mine, Casey, to know I do too. Knowing something bad can appear after the procedure’s biopsies are completed is a possibility. I don’t want to wait until it’s too late or not have said it at all.

Life is too short to hold grudges and not make amends to those you love and care for.

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