Loss

I woke up this morning to an email letting me know that a family friend had died.

Death is a strange thing, and something that is leaving its impression upon my life more and more as life goes on. A year doesn't go by when I am not touched by the affects of someone's death.

Last night Kate, mother of Brett and Phil, and husband of Dan died of breast cancer. She'd been fighting it for the past 51 months, and succumbed to it last night a the age of 54.

Brett and Phil were brothers that I grew up swimming with. I swam competitively from grade 4 through 10, and met Brett and Phil through it. They also went to the same school as us, where their mom was a occasional substitute teacher.

Dan worked for the City, as did my dad, but Dan was one of the city engineers, while my dad ran the bailing facility at the dump. They were friends outside of work, and we'd go over to their house for dinner and out to their cabin for weekend boating/fishing trips.

To me, they were rich. They lived in a huge house, owned a Super Nintendo with lots of games, and had a cabin with a boat. They were no better than us, they just had more money. Dan and Kate were just normal folks that made more money than my parents, but it never seemed like that made any difference. We all got along great.

Sometime in junior high they moved away to Florida or somewhere and we lost touch. I think I saw them one other time in Yellowknife during high school when they were in town for a visit, but other than that, I haven't seen them since junior high.

Facebook reintroduced us, but other than cursory messages, there hasn't been much conversation.

It really sucks that Kate died. She was an awesome lady, far too young to die. It's a shitty deal.

My thoughts and prayers are with Dan and the boys while they go through this horrible time.