In the middle of the night on Saturday night, a close friend dropped dead of a heart attack. He was 54. He adored words, he was a writer and newspaperman, and the Editor of the paper in my county, and the surrounding counties.
He was a jokester, a loving passionate family man, a NY Yankees fan, a song writer, a guy who could do shots of appallingly cheap whiskey with the best of them, and…and so damned many other things.
You know when your eyes are sore from crying? Yeah. Like that. His wife, who feels robbed because she only got 10 years with him, is broken.
Painful reminder that people just get taken out. They go out of the house, or they get up and walk down the hallway, and …they are gone.
Kiss yer kids. Call yer parents. Stop fighting with your older sister.
God, if there IS a God, has a rather twisted sense of humor. The dredges of the earth endure to torture the helpless, and a good man with a conscience who did such good for so many others is taken out in the blink of an eye.
Fuck, but I am angry about this.
Mike, you were loved and respected. Read a bit about this guy here.
So Sorry to hear your great loss. Sounds like a wonderful man was gone way too soon.
As you say, life is precious; love as if there might not be a tomorrow, and be grateful for every day lived.
Let that anger out, it’s deserved, and then hold him close to your heart. It’s all we can ever do. He sounds like a great person who made life better by his actions, and being around him.
That’s pretty much the same age as my dad was when he had his attack. Although it didn’t kill him–he spent about a month in the hospital–I have a pretty good idea of what you’re going through. My condolences.
I’m so sorry that you had to suffer this, Cartooniverse. Losing someone with no warning is even more heart-wrenching than an expected death, like you said, because of all the things you wish you had done but didn’t. However, I’m very certain that Mike knew how much you respected and cared for him. He died knowing he had people like you who would miss him as much as you do.
I remember reading a little of Mike’s incisive and witty prose reprinted in Empire State Report. Just enough to get a sense of what an enormous loss this is. Cartooniverse, my prayers are with you and with Ellen, Ben, and Sam. Thanks for letting us know.
I hear ya, man. I only recently (last week) learned of the passing of an older friend of mine, a record producer and hell of a great guy who’d give you the shirt off his back if he thought it would help. We weren’t extremely close – he lived in Ohio and I in Toronto so that presented problems – but we used to talk often and at length about music and everything else. Salt of the earth – and he hadn’t even hit 50 when he passed, also of a heart attack And just a little over a year ago another good friend whom I knew personally for years succumbed to cancer in his early 30s, a bitter irony for someone who liked to suck the marrow out of all life had to offer. It sucks hard and feels so unjust when great people are taken while the dregs of humanity continue to slither from rock to rock, and I know how it feels. I’m sorry for your loss, small comfort though these words bring.
My deep thanks to you all. What a terrible day yesterday- a day many of us have lived through and absorbed as a part of life itself. I made it well into anger by the time I shovelled a bit of dirt onto the plain pine box. A beautiful but very painful ritual, like a lot of death rituals.
Giraffe, thank you for the kind word and of course, it makes sense to have moved this. No worries.
I am going tonight, as I did last night, to sit shiva with them and stand as one of ten for the service. I , the fallen Jew who struggles with terrible effort to deal with religion, my past, God and so on. I do it to honor Mike and to bring another body into the house who cares for and loves his wife and children and step-children.
I cannot for the life of me ( and, this may be for another thread entirely ) decide if I am doing it because I am a Jew in my blood, but I know with great certainty I am doing it, and will every night till Sunday night, because I loved the man.
Cartooniverse, your post hit me like few others have. Newspaper people are among my favorite. I was one of 'em for many years, and proudly so. I never met one who didn’t believe passionately in what he/she was doing. All the ink-stained wretches I know (many are still good friends) endure criticism, misunderstanding and work schedules that would crush an ordinary person, and they do so joyfully because they adore the First Amendment and this great nation. Even the hearts of foreign journalists burn with a passion for free expression. I didn’t know your friend, but I do know this: The world is better because he was in it, and emptier now that he is gone.
