My Friend Passed a little under 2 weeks ago
I’ve been reflecting about how his death affects me
During my lifetime I have dealt with a lot of death. My younger sister passed away when she was 15 years old after being in a collision with a drunk driver. It took more than 30 years to learn how to deal with that. For that long, every time somebody would mention her I would cry. I couldn’t deal with it. In that case, I came upon the accident while I was driving on the highway, so it was a real shocker for me.
My Father died with I was young, 30 years old. My younger brother died of brain cancer when he was 51. My mother lived a more full life, she passed in 2017 when she was 75. I am the last one left out of the family that I grew up with. So, death has been no stranger to me. Thankfully I have learned to deal with it better than when my sister died.
My Friend passed away a little less than 2 weeks ago.
My friend, LeRoy, had been ill for several years. He had some health problems that go back for nearly a decade, but the thing that killed him was COVID. LeRoy had severe respiratory problems that were caused by COVID. LeRoy had been to dozens of doctors around Indiana trying to get help, but no doctor he was was able to put the puzzle together. Most recently LeRoy had gone to Ohio to visit the Cleveland Clinic. They were starting a new program to help people with long-term COVID issues.
When LeRoy saw a number of Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic, he was accepted into the new program offering COVID research and treatment. He was supposed to go to a series of appointments in Cleveland in March to begging his path down the trail of healing. Unfortunately, he did not make it long enough to make his first appointment into the program.
I knew that LeRoy had been suffering lately with severe breathing issues, and a very low oxygen level in his body. Over the past few years he had suffered like this regularly, but he would find some kind of treatment to help him. This time, no treatment would help, though.
Call from LeRoy’s brother
On a Monday morning almost 2 weeks ago, I got a phone call from LeRoy’s brother, Paul. LeRoy lives in the same town where I live in North Central Indiana. His brother lives in Northern Ohio. The brother was calling to inform me of LeRoy’s death. Although LeRoy had been so sick for several years, it was shocking to hear of his death, it just did not seem real. LeRoy was a little more than a year younger than I am. He was 61 when he passed away. Way, way too young.
How I met LeRoy
Back when I lived in the Philippines, I had a lot of Blogs. Most most popular and well known blog was called “Live in the Philippines Web Magazine” or just “LiP” for short. The blog had many thousands of readers every day, and a pretty active community on the site. LeRoy was an avid reader of the site, and later also did a little writing on the site too.
LeRoy and I became friendly in the comments on LiP, and our friendship grew over the years. In 2018 LeRoy even visited me in the Philippines. Around the end of 2018 Feyma and I decided to move back to the States. We could not decide where in the States we wanted to live, though, so we were spending a lot of time researching different areas.
One day, LeRoy sent me an email and asked me:
Have you considered settling in Indiana?
Well, I told him, It’s cold there! He told me that it was only cold “a few days a year”. We always laughed about that, because it is VERY Cold for months on end! LoL LeRoy went on to tell me that Feyma and also our son Chris would have good jobs waiting for them upon our arrival. We thought that landing at the airport in a state we had never been to, and having jobs waiting sounded like a good idea. So we accepted LeRoy’s invitation to come here.
Over my (so far) 5 years in Indiana, my friendship with LeRoy grew. LeRoy was always happy to assist if we had any problems, and assist he did, many times in fact.
Taking Stock
Over the past 2 weeks (almost) since LeRoy’s death, I have been taking stock of my life. I have certainly not been the picture of health, I can assure you. I have, however, lived longer than anybody in my family except for my Mother (yet).
I have some things to do to improve my health. I want to live longer so I can spend the most time with Feyma and also our (adult) kids, and our grandson. I know I have to take the necessary steps to improve my health, and LeRoy’s death has only strengthened my resolve to do the things that I have to do.
I miss LeRoy, and I miss him a lot. Sometimes I pick up my phone to text him or give him a call…. only to remember that he won’t answer if I do call.
Rest in Peace, my friend. You are not forgotten.
Very 😢 sad, I know you two were close.
Thanks very much for commenting, I appreciate it. We were close friends, he did many things to help me after I moved here to Indiana after living so long in the Philippines. I also tried to help him whenever I could. I’m very sad about what happened to Leroy, but I suppose it’s the cycle of life that we all live with.
He and I were Facebook friends through you and he had the shared love of the Philippines. I saw his regular posts on the constant physical issues which I can’t imagine was very fun. Those pains are at least behind him. I find myself constantly thinking of health since I have two young children. Find myself doing more and more research and my vitamin cabinet is growing weekly. Good luck Bob. Keep healthy. Rest in peace Leroy.
Indeed, he loved the Philippines and had been there multiple times. He badly wanted to move to the Philippines, but his severe COVID related health problems made that move more or less impossible.