In Memory...

I was just cleaning up some old Facebook statuses when I came across one from this week last year. It simply read "RIP Lee, your time came too soon". I can't believe it has been a year already.

Lee and I met as we were growing up as members of a fundamentalist religion. When you're a young child, you are whatever religion your parents say you are. We attended meetings, bible studies and theocratic school together. Lee was always good for a laugh, and had a kind streak in him as wide as all outdoors. Like me, when he was old enough to decide for himself, he left the religion.

Lee took a job working in a VA hospital. This was typical of Lee to want to help others. The amazing thing was that Lee was not in favor of war. But his love of his fellow beings was more important than his dislike for what these people were part of. In the end, it was his caring for these soldiers that cost Lee his life. I can't say more for fear of violating some type of privacy statute.

I went to Lee's service, which was kind of surreal. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that someone so damn caring and good, let alone younger than me, was gone so soon. In the year since, I have lost a couple more close friends who were younger. It makes me think about my course of action in my life. Hopefully I'll learn how to be a better person.

Thanks for reading. And I hope that you all have someone in your life like Lee. If you do, cherish them. People like Lee are a treasure. It's a shame that too often we don't recognize it till it's too late.

Take care my friends.