Charlie

Got home from work tonight and there was an email from Carol. The email itself was something Matt had sent Carol and asked her to forward it to me. A couple of news reports about our friend Charlie. Charlie died last year and that's what these stories were about. This is the first any of us, as far as I can tell, have heard about it. Matt & Charlie graduated from college here and today Matt got his alumni newsletter in the mail. That's where he read the news. I'm still feeling numb about it. I really don't know what to think.

I met Charlie back in the late 80s. My friend Gish met him at school, and in turn, so did I and so did the rest of the gang. We became good friends when I moved to Albany in 1990. After he graduated, he moved back to Long Island and we drifted apart. It's only natural. We would see each other occasionally over the years, but never with any regularity. Whenever he was in town, we'd get together and go out.

Charlie was a good man. I'm not just saying that because he's gone, I'm saying it because it's true. Think about all of your friends. Can you say that about all of them? No, of course you can't. You know the ones who are good people, the ones who have petty tendencies, the ones who are assholes, but they're your friends all the same. Charlie was a good man. He's going to be missed.