A friend passes

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.

Sunspace, I’m sorry for your loss.

Send C a copy of this! And maybe you knew V better than you thought. If such a good friend cared for her that much that says they were “good people”

C will surely understand your own loss and not think the less of you. Take care of yourself too, I’m sorry for the loss of your father.