I just found out last night that V, the wife of C, my best friend from university, died on Monday of brain cancer. We were all in the same class, but I didn’t know her nearly as well as C.
C and I were like two peas in a pod at times. We drew in each others’ sketchbooks and developed a fine appreciation of Monty Python and programmed our first computers together. But there was much I didn’t see. I didn’t see the developing relationship between C and V all through first year.
During the summer I went back to my home town and C went hack to his home province… but I took the train out and visited him. Second year came and we were back at school, but I flamed out and left university after the first half of second year. A year or so later, after I’d established myself in a new course of study at college–electronics–I visited C in downtown Toronto. He was house-sitting V’s parents’ condo. Luxury! Clearly their relationship had deepened and grown.
Eventually C and V migrated to California and set up a new life there. I went down to visit them several times. We drove around California, and I fell in love with the California landscape.
C and V got married. The reception was like nothing I’ve ever seen before or since; it included a ten-course meal!
The last time I saw them was in '98, when I went to California for a conference. Soon afterwards, their daughter was born.
I’d had some limited contact with them this spring on Facebook, so I knew V had been ill, but I didn’t know the situation was that bad. C said that V died holding their daughter’s hand…
They’ll be laying her to rest on June the 2nd… the day before we lay my father’s ashes to rest. I wish I could be there, but they live 4000 km away and I don’t have the money to go there. Even if it wasn’t the day before my dad’s.
I wish I’d known V better.