Give Yourself to Others …

Nothing focuses the mind like death.

A very close friend of mine, Gene Booth, died a couple of weeks ago, from cancer which was diagnosed only two or three weeks earlier. Her oldest son, Dane Booth started a blog about her health updates.

As it turned out, the updates were not needed for very long. Her particular type of cancer is typically asymptomatic until the late stages, and is virtually always very aggressive and fatal, as a result of the late diagnosis. That was certainly what happened to Gene.

Gene and George are among my best friends on earth. Hard to explain all the reasons why. Mostly is was just so much time spent together, so many shared experiences. They stood by my wife, Linda, and I when we were going thru some of our toughest times — I’m not sure they thought we’d make it.

Gene was a control freak, but she was so nice about it. And if the Spanish had had Gene, she could have handled the inquisition on her own, without any help. But she’d do anything for you, and she stayed in touch with half the world.

We’ll probably lose touch with some folks, just because Gene’s not around to keep us updated.

But, as I wrote on Dane’s blog about his mother — I’m happy for Gene and sad for the rest of us.