If you can't stand reality, click out now. You have been warned!!
This morning Thursday October 19th, was like every other morning for me, I got up, showered, shaved. got dressed and headed out to one of my accounts where we were beginning a $500,000 renovation project. I drove the thirty two miles to the site thinking about my other accounts and other business. My mind drifted a bit, and I thought about the Florida State University football game against my favorite team Boston College this coming Saturday, and the fun I was going to have. I had invited my friend and "buddy" Mikie Riordan to go with me. We'd have to leave at 8 a.m. to get there by game time and be in the stands. I'd scored two tickets at mid-field halfway up, the best seats in the stadium of 100,000 from a business contact. FSU is really bad this year and B.C. is good. I was relishing the two guys from "Bean town" swaggering out at the end of the game knowing how good Boston College was, and being glad our team won. Mikie and I are both from Boston, and when I scored the tickets I couldn't think of anyone who I'd enjoy going to the game more with, and who would enjoy "bragging rights"...and then my cell phone rang.
"Tom here, who's this?"
"Tom, it's Vince (My friend Mikie's room-mate). Mikie's dead."
" Hey Vince, you're shitting me, right?"
" No,...I hadn't heard from in two days and it bothered me, so I knocked on his door and he did'nt answer, so I went in and he was slumped over his computer. I shook him but he didn't respond and he was as cold as a rock,...so I just called the Sheriff. Can you come over?"
"I'm about a half an hour away Vince, but I'm on my way."
About thirty minutes later I go there, and was painfully aware o fht etwo ploice cruisers and the obviously unmarked police car pulled up in front of Mikie's apartment.
"Oh Shit, this can't be happening!" I remember thinking, as Mikie and I were sharing beers at our local Pub, Buster's on Sunday afternoon.
I had tried to call him Monday and thought he might be doing some work for a mutual friend about forty miles away in an area where cell phone contact was "scetchy". I had given his cell phone number to another tradesman to call on Tuesday to see about some work Mikie had been willing to show him about. I tried to call him yesterday to see if they had "hooked up", but again no answer.
For those of you who have followed my blog I've introduced you to Mikie. The last of the original "hippies" from the 60's. My "bud", or mate, a guy who would go anywhere and do anything for you even if you never asked.
As I got out of my car Mikie's old room mate Janey ran over to me, sobbing her eyes out and threw her arms around me, sobbing. I knew at that moment, Mikie was not "of this earth" anymore.
Everything moved to second place at that instant,...Mikie became number one!
The Sheriff's department investigator came out and saw me holding and comforting Janey and asked if I knew "the deceased". I answered "Yeah, he's my buddy,...is it true?"
He nodded his head, and said, "I'm sorry."
I won't fill the next umty-ump pages with memories and such, ...but suffice it to say it was a BITCH of a day from there on out.
Everyone looked to me as "the strong one", and I guess I am. I talked to the Sheriff's investigators, the Medical examiner, the Sheriff's deputy assigned, I consoled the girl's who lived next door and knew Mikie, I hugged his "roomy", I gathered info, and I "hung in there".
Mikie loved hanging out at our local Pub, Buster's, as did I. My cell phone started ringing as word got around, "What can we do?, What happened? Is it true?" All for "my buddy",...I'm in schock!
A voice "popped" into my mind, and I begin telling everyone, "Look, It's still unfolding, and I'm doing what I can, but I'll be at Buster's this afternoon at four p.m. and I'll share whatever we know with any of you, thanks for calling.
The day wore on, Mikie was slumped over his computer, his bottle of nitroglygerin two inches from his hand and untouched, no sign of struggle, extreme pain, etc. According to the investigator, "he went quick and painless". For that I'm thankful.
I stayed until the Medical Examiner came and pronounced him dead, and then the van came and they took his body away in a plastic bag to the coroner's office.
The 'investigator" told me he appeared to have passed away at least two days ago. And under Florida law an unattended death would require an autopsy.
Time blurs!!! Sure I've seen CSI, Grey's Anatomy, House, etc., but this was Mikie, my buddy, my friend, my alter-ego in life! DEAD!
At four o'clock I went to the pub, ordered a Guinness, and sat, thinking of Mikie. By 4:10 there were over forty people there. All friends of Mikie!! We talked, we drank, we hugged, we shared stories of Mikie. We laughed, we teared up, and we remembered.
Mikie we miss you, and we all loved you, and we will take care of you.
I'm trying to find your sister from the internet as I write. We love you, and we miss you, but I will vow that you will be remembered by all of us, and we will see that you end up at "The Whale's Tail" to watch all the eye candy on the beach.
Miss you already!
-30-
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3 comments:
I'm sitting here crying for the loss of your good friend and for your pain and grief. Both of which will come on strong as the shock starts to wear off.
Having lost a loved one, I know there is nothing I can say to bring you any comfort and there's nothing anyone can "do" either. But just know that you're not alone and as you remember him here on your blog, we will remember him with you.
A person like you described is someone who touches lives wherever he goes. He's the flat stone that you skip acorss a lake and I guarantee you that each ripple is a person he touched and indirectly, through that person, touched another and another.
No... neither his legacy nor his memory will ever be lost, Mr. G.
But I truly am sorry for your loss; remember that even being the "strong one" (a role I know too well) doesn't mean that you can't grieve too. Give yourself time to do that...
*Hugs*
Again , Princess, Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Mikkie was one of those "buddies" who was your friend to the end. The last time my wife went away on business we worked together building shelves in my computer room, ruined a closet door by cutting it too short,...and of course sharing a couple pints with me saying" don't worry about it Mikie, I'll tell her I measured wrong. " And him saying,"No way dude, I'll buy the new door and we'll make it right.
Check the next blog, and tell me I don't love and miss this guy!
Mr. G.
I"m sorry to hear/read about your friend. It's a nasty reminder that none of us are immortal. But I am sure he is somewhere having the time of his afterlife.
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