Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Mortality sucks

Early Tuesday morning, my friend Joe lost his battle with cancer. I got the news while I was at work tonight, and I'm still stunned. Joe had been my supervisor at my real job several years ago, but we quickly became friends. He was one of the few people I'd ever met who was actually a cycling fan...most people just stare at me with dumb expressions on their face whenever I talk about the sport. He was a super nice guy, and a bit of a smart ass, which fits my wise cracking personality really well.

He was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago, and he vowed to fight it like Lance Armstrong had fought his, but unfortunately, this time the cancer was too strong.

He was actually three years younger than me, so that's a slap in the face for me, and he was also very health-conscious, which just shows you that cancer can get anyone.

The worst part of all of this is that he had two young boys. I believe they were eight and four, and now they have to grow up without their father.

A sad day, a sad day indeed...........

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about the death of your friend, J.

We need to know more about cancer, its causes, early diagnosis, and treatment. How about a link? I think Lance Armstrong had a "drive" or charity for the cause, for ex.

Robert Porter

J Alan Erwine said...

You're probably thinking about Livestrong. www.livestrong.org

And thanks for the thoughts...

Jim Shannon said...

In my experience It's rare to find a nice guy "smart-ass." type personality.

my condolances for your loss J.

Jim

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link, J.

My step-dad, who introduced me to SF and fired up my imagination, died of cancer when I was about 13. About that time, my favorite teacher introduced us to a new kid and explained why he wore a hat in school; he struggled with leukemia for the next 5 years, dying shortly after graduation -- he'd have made a brilliant scientist or engineer.