It's Been Some Kind of Year...

The past year has seen me lose my mom and Cathy lose her dad. They are certainly missed but you know as life goes on your parents will pass. It's like they formed you and have now left you in charge. When your friends start to pass it feels a bit different. 

I received news from her husband Brad this morning that an old friend from college days at SFASU in Nacogdoches, Nydia, passed away this past weekend. I had known her since maybe 1976-77. As it often goes friendships weave around and go up and down but the past several years we have been back in contact and was texting with Brad a couple of weeks ago so communication and friendship were still being maintained. 

That's Nydia on the left, I think that's Suzi in the middle. Those big glasses got me guessing girl! I don't remember where or when of this photo. I called Suzi this morning to break the news. That's Peggy on the right. I have completely lost track of her. 

Reportedly Nydia has been writing this great long book where I'm a character in it. I guess I'll have to go on being my own character.  

I also received news and spent some time in conversation with Nydia and another old friend, Julie a few weeks ago about the passing of an old buddy, Dave. He had passed sometime last year. We always called Dave by the nick name of "Goofy Malone." You had to know him. Dave contacted me several years ago and we talked on the phone once but he gave me like a wrong phone number and email address and I could never contact him again. That's why we called him Goofy. Our friendship also dated back to the late 70s.  

I think I had known Dave when I lived in the dorm and then when me and some guys moved off campus to a trailer park I looked out the window and there was Dave right next door again. 

While our paths went different ways through the years I will always cherish those youthful times we spent laughing, drinking, listening to music and sharing dreams. There are parts of Nydia and Dave I carry and stories of them I still tell. I do these things because they were important to me. As our parents form us and leave us to the adulting our friends form parts of us that we must carry on in our spirit.