So anyway I found out an old friend from way, way back, who ended up being my best friend from the age of 13-16 or so died on Saturday.

I had been meaning to catch up with him. 🙁

Usually I try to live my life so that I never have to regret not doing something, but this was a notable exception.

I wish I could have gotten more sleep last night. I felt like a stuffed up, sore and tired zombie at his visitation today.

What frustrates me about it is that he spent his last year of highschool in Detroit, 180 miles away from where we lived.

Wait, isn't that where I live now?

Yes.

I've spent 8 years within probably 30 miles of him and couldn't find him. Admittedly, I wasn't tearing the city apart looking, but I expended a reasonable amount of effort doing so. I mean, I could have ran into him at a gas station, or passed him on a freeway, and not known. That's what I hate about big cities. Where i grew up, it was by no means a 1 horse town, but I knew the cars of my friends and I just don't think it would have been possible to not run into someone after all that time where I grew up. I don't know. I like where I live and all, it's just frustrating.

The crazy part is how he died. I mean, you'd expect maybe someone around my age might die for a number of reasons, mostly stupid. If it were that, I could probably deal.

The real story is downright terrifying. (and it's second hand and my memory sucks, so the details might be a bit off) He was having shoulder pain. He thought it was a broken bone or something. He went to see a doctor, who told him to go straight to the hospital. At the hospital, they found out it was a large tumor, and admitted him. This was on valentines day, I think. Then they did various things. He ended up dying from the tumor on Saturday. He went in on valentines day with shoulder pain, and NEVER CAME BACK OUT. If that doesn't seem particularly terrifying, nothing will. I mean, how do you deal with that? Shit. Makes you wonder if a pain you have is really as benign as it seems.

Anyway, that's what I've been dealing with in my mind since Sunday when I found out.

Rest in peace, Michael Chamberlain.

One thought on “”

  1. I'm sorry I missed this post. My heart goes out to you. Having worked with sickness for nearly a year, it doesn't seem that far-fetched at all. We see young people every month with terrible, catastrophic illnesses.

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