Today is December 2.
It was one year ago today that my best friend started his long and miserable journey toward his eventual death on January 13, 2004. I was torn whether I should write anything, and I will create a more detailed page of his last month so the events will always exist for me to remember and the world to discover, but I felt it more important for me to get my thoughts out and let everyone know what he meant to me..
His name was Michael D. Cohen and it began with an apparent strep throat. He called off work and wanted me to take him to see my doctor, two things he never does.
He was a work-a-holic and calling off was akin to launching a nuclear attack on an innocent country, he would never do it. He was deathly afraid of doctors and hospitals, probably because his father died at such a young age (47, the same age Michael was when he died back in January) and his mother began her decline by going into the hospital, though she lasted 10 more years. I was concerned for Michael because he was my best friend and roommate but I was not worried; it was a cold, people get them, people get over them, this would be over in a few days.
It turns out it wasn't strep throat; there was an infection of some sort, but it wasn't strep. Over the course of the week the infection apparently found its way into his lungs, giving him bi-lateral pnemonia requiring hospitalization on December 8....he would never leave.
This will be a hard 6 weeks for me, reliving the events of last year. Remembering his respiratory failure requiring a tracheostomy and a breathing machine which he'd never come off. Remembering his kidney failure requiring dialysis. Remembering how he was unable to talk after a week in the hospital and had to write everything out, and then losing that ability as the pain and sedation robbed him of movement. Remembering him looking at me and trying to tell me things with his eyes that I just couldn't understand and how frustrated he bacame at my inability. How disappointed I was not to be able to read his mind. I'm his best friend, I should know what he was saying....
This will be a hard 6 weeks. January 13, 2005 being the hardest day of them all. I've been without my best friend for one year now...seems like yesterday, seems like a decade ago. Time is a funny thing, it can be slow and fast all at the same time. Events can appear to take place long long ago or as recently as a blink of an eye ago, while everyone around you experiences the real passage of time.
Hug your loved ones, tell them you love them, you never know when they will leave you, when their mission is over, when God wants them home. Cherish every minute of every day. Make happy and wonderful memories together, they're the only things you'll have left once they're gone.
RobMac
