Requiem

Word came from Kansas City yesterday that a high school classmate has died. I didn’t know him well. He was well-liked, friendly. I went out with him once. And we chatted at the 50th Reunion a few years ago. I don’t remember what he looked like then. I see him still as the handsome young man that he was in the 1950’s. In my mind’s eye he is out on the athletic field at Southwest High in those days of sunshine and youthful exuberance. We were so young and hopeful and anxious for life.

This e-mail is one more in a string of messages as one loss after another occurs. We are all in our 70’s now. Fifty plus years later, we have lived the lives we were so looking forward to then. Careers, homes, families. Our accomplishments accomplished. Dreams realized or given up on. Friends in dusty faded photos all but forgotten.

It is strange that up until now I thought I was getting ready for my real life which was going to start any day now. “Today is the tomorrow you dreamed about yesterday” as the old saying goes. Now I’m looking in the rearview mirror and mourning those whose lives have played out. And pondering my own.