Over the past several days, I’ve sat down and tried to write at least a dozen times, to no avail. I’ve wanted to be all pumped up for the new year, and kick it off with a really exciting post. But on the first day of 2008, I found out that a friend of mine had died over the weekend.
He was on a ride, but it wasn’t a crash or an accident with a car that took him, it was an aneurysm. One of the fittest guys I know, who put in lots of quality miles and paid careful attention to his nutrition, lost to something he had no control over. I have a very hard time with the unfairness of this situation. Heck, even cancer gives you the opportunity to fight it. But he got nothing other than a headache, then a coma.
Rodney was someone that was very giving. He once gave me some bike parts. Lots of parts. Boxes and boxes of parts. So many parts that I was able to start a small business selling them online – one of my first ventures into the retail side of the industry. He had worked as a manager for a company that went out of business, and had been storing the unused inventory in his garage. He made it seem like I was doing him a favor by carting it all off, and only asked for a pittance in return. So I wasn’t surprised to hear that his final gift was to some people he never met, through the generosity of organ donations. That’s how he rolled. It’s kind of ironic that when someone who gives and gives and gives leaves us, they also leave behind a huge void that can’t be filled.
There’s a memorial service this weekend for Rodney, which I won’t be able to attend. But I’ll be thinking of him. And if anything good can come from this, it’s a reminder to never take a single minute for granted, as life is too short. That might just be my theme for 2008.
The kind of open, supportive people this sport (and this world) need a lot more of. Sorry for the loss to his family and friends…
It’s hard to lose someone to an injury or accident, but someone healthy and active with no reason to worry getting hit by something like this is just always so stunningly difficult to take, and seems almost impossible to process.
Sorry for the loss of your good friend. However, it is a quick/fast way to go. No lingering illness, no problems paying for meds, etc.
Our bodies were donated to science back in the late 60s . . . those folks at the university sure are patient!!
Like we told our kids, donating body/organs is the ultimate in re-cycling.