More Loss

Two friends gone in as many weeks, though one died just after Ron, last August.

Jerry was a buddy, a pal.  We met at a football game, where he and the sweet boy who would become my longest-running relationship in High School were sitting behind me, endlessly blowing an air horn in my ear.  Jerry was never a romantic interest for me that I remember (my memory is apparently flawed in that regard, as more than one old friend has said we had a romantic involvement when I remembered none), but rather an extremely good friend.  He listened, I talked.  He talked, I listened.    We both despaired of ever finding true love, and even had a pact at one point in which we would get together and give one another a try if we were still virgins when we were 25.  Of course, we lost touch soon after high school, only reconnecting about two years ago.  Jerry had become a reclusive curmudgeon, living with his wife of many decades in eastern Oregon, and try as I might, I never got the sense there was a smile or even a glimmer at the other end of our communication.

I'm sorry he's gone, for I feel the loss, but I think he was more than ready, and so I am glad for his release.  I confess that I really hope there's some interim meetup waiting for me after this life...more and more people I care about are over there. And maybe that's my final shred of hope that lingers after all else falls away...