delayed information...

Well I was poking around on facebook the other night looking for people I knew and seeing if they were on there...funny who you find and who you don't.  I thought of a person I had known in college for a bit and didn't find them on there, so I plugged their name in google...a few sights came up....one very old with a story from 1997 in college and one a bit more recent...sadly the person has passed away and in a way it was quite expected, but still sad and still took me a moment to really let it sink in...

My senior year in college I had finally ended a long over due relationship with someone i had dated for several years.  I was finally enjoying college, enjoying dating and having some fun. I went out with my best friend Kelly to a bar with both loved to get some drinks and chat.  By the time the night was over I had gotten my first matchbox with a number in it...the boy was nice and worked at the bar...he seemed normal and safe so I called.  We ended up hanging out for a while and I wouldn't dare say dating...things with him were always a bit distant.  See he had a terminal illness and I think a lot of that determined how he handled a lot of things.  He was funny, charming, and for the most part a great guy. But he was dying...he was on a donor list and waiting to receive a new liver.  Turned out that while we were spending time together he had met someone else and when I confronted him on it I almost felt bad.  He had death sentence...not that it gave him the right to be a jerk to me, but it did explain a lot about how his mind was working. Ironically the night I went over to see him and caught him in a lie I later met Brandon at a Halloween party....3 weeks later we met again and then the rest is history.  

I saw this boy one more time at the end of summer 1999...I was walking across campus and had just gotten engaged...He was riding his bike and passed me...stopped and turned around to talk. It was a little awkward but we both spoke of how good our lives were going...I was engaged and happy and he had just met a girl he thought was great...turns out he married that girl and had a baby with her before he died.  We walked away no hard feelings and I wished him well...I have thought of him over the years and always wondered and hoped that he found peace...within his life and the chance to enjoy his life.  I think he did.  He died in May of 2007 after finally getting a liver from his brother.  According to the obituary he died after complications...

It was sad to read it and to think that at one time I knew him and listened to him tell me all about his diagnosis, treatments and hope for a transplant...I hope that his wife and baby are doing okay...I can't imagine their pain....

Sometimes the internet is a great way to reconnect with old friends and sometimes you would rather not know what you learn...I am glad that I got the chance to know him and that in the end he got to have some of the things he so desperately wanted in life before it was cut too short...