Last night Ron, friend of my family, died of a heart attack. He was my mother's oldest friend and one of the people I have known the longest in life.

He lived the last 15 or so years of his life on a resort island, watching girls in bikinis and drinking fruity drinks. He had a family down there, one of his nephews made the call to my mom. He had a pretty good life.

I'm glad I got to see him and help him out last year, when he came and stayed in Baltimore for knee surgery. He managed to get his artificial knee removed, and lived the last year of his life without the chronic pain that had been dogging him. I'm glad I could be in some small way be involved with that.

I'm going to miss him, even though I didn't see him that often, it was nice to know he was out there, and likely to pop back in my life randomly.

Goodbye Ron, you are already missed.