This may seem like such a simple line, but there are many layers to it.
I try to write these posts based on current events – things that may be happening in my life…or arnd the world, as the goal is to deliver as genuine & raw of a personal set of feelings as possible, in the hopes that some can relate, & feel less alone in their journeys.
I got the news yesterday, that a friend from college’s father had passed, unexpectedly while taking a nap. Heart attack. His mom had found him unresponsive. Just awful.
My friend was a senior when I was a freshman at Cornell. I loved this guy as an “older brother” type, & loved his then girlfriend, now wife.
Throughout the yrs we’ve remained friends. They live in NJ, & I’d get to see their fam at Devils games when I worked there. They’d come when we had theme nights in arena just to show support, & even came when we started WAALC just over 2 yrs ago, to the launch event.
I’m sure many of you have friends in your life like this. Ppl you love…who at an earlier, more carefree time in life, you’ve been able to spend a ton of time w (I mentioned he was a Sr. when I was a freshman to demonstrate how we really only had that one yr like that).
Then life gets busy: work, kids, extended fam, health, & it’s harder to stay in touch & see each other.
My friend is Jewish & so he began to sit shiva for the first night after the funeral, at his mom’s apt last night. I was able to make some calls, & our mutual friend – his yr in college too, who’s remained close, offered to drive me from NYC, to the apt to be there for our bud this first night of grieving.
Pains me bc I’m heading to LA this afternoon for the Clippers event & won’t be able to come see him the rest of this difficult stretch – so was imperative I got there yesterday.
We’re all busy. We all have things going on. We all have legit reasons we can’t be “there.” We all even have excuses that we’re not as close as we once were, 20 yrs ago! But, as the slide says: “All We Have Is Each Other.”
It’s at moments like these. When your friend needs you, that you understand what purpose really means. Your purpose is to be “there.”
