Gary Our Friend

My Mom has had this best friend Gary for almost as long as I can remember. My mom and Gary had such a special friendship and where always so close. When my mom moved to California they grew a little a part. A few years later I had ran into Gary one day after I moved back to Washington. We both happened to just be out and about and ended up grabbing a cup of coffee and catching up. Gary and I became very good friends we would meet about once a week for coffee or dinner and just talk. It was nice to have a little older perspective on life. I also liked how we could just talk about anything and we knew neither one of us would judge. We could bounce ideas off each other, we could tell stories, or we could just talk about how much we missed my mom. We even became such good friends that Gary joined the group of us girls on our Vegas trip for my 21st Birthday! Gary had always been that person that was just there, and would be any way you needed him. It didn’t matter if it was to be someone to talk to when I got my heart crushed again, to help me move again, or even to help me get my new start by buying my first work outfit when I was to broke to afford it. Gary has always been this stand up guy and father like figure.

Well last year at about this time we had found out that Gary had been diagnosed with the Big C {Cancer}. It was the Cancer that attacked your brain. Gary went in and began treatment. My mom came up for a visit from California not too long after and we had all went to dinner. Gary was a little slow but he was up and moving, talking and joking we thought he had won the fight.


The last week of June, Gary went to another doctor’s appointment after feeling a bit weak. At the doctor they did an MRI. The results where bad. {Real Bad} The doctor only gave Gary 6 months to live and said the cancer had came back so strong that there was nothing he could do.



Its now two months later... I went and saw Gary last night. He is laying in a hospital bed in his house and they say he only has a week to live. He can’t breath on his own, they have to keep removing things from his throat, he can’t open his eyes and you can see every bone in his body. This broke my heart! I don’t understand how in a year you can go from being so healthy and working out everyday and eating right and never drinking to laying on a hospital bed with just days to live. This is a guy that climbed Mount Everest, this is a guy who did marathons, and this is one of the most amazing beings I have ever known. This is just a reminder to tell people how much you love them and spend every minute you have with the ones you love. I am going to truly miss Gary and I’m always going to have the spot in my heart for him.