This week was Canada Day, I hope you had a good one! It was a mid-week holiday and work was actually a lot busier than I ever expected (I didn’t foresee any).
June 29,2016 is a day that will be seared in my head for the rest of my life. I recall the day well and what I was doing exactly. It actually was a beautiful day out, I was working at the resort like I so often do (Sun Peaks). I had be doing a small job for the Municipality and as I often do, I started a job, went for lunch and went back to finish up. Well at least that's what I thought was going to happen. My phone rang and it was a friend of mine from high school I don’t talk to often but occasionally do and to be honest I figured it was going to be a work-related type call. The friend was Mike Boose and the call was probably the last thing I would have expected that moment and this is where it sorts of gets a bit blurry. Mike called to ask me about Jason, a longtime friend of mine that I have known since the seventh grade. Jay had some medical struggles and he was dealing with a lot of chronic pain. I, to this day can’t say what he had as I don’t think it was ever diagnosed. Mike had heard that Jason passed away and called me to confirm what he heard. Needless to say, I hadn’t heard anything either. I flopped myself on a bench and was like what the f? So maybe Mike can fill in some blanks. I think I said that I would make a call and call him back. Immediately I called his ex-wife Laurie who is to this day one of my best friends. She answered the phone all chipper and happy so it was very clear she knew nothing of what I was about to ask her. “Hey Laur, Mike Boose just called me and said Jay died in the hospital. She was silent and she then said she was going to reach out to a family connection to find out if there was any truth. Within Ten minutes she called me back and told me the news that it was true. Jay was in the hospital for a biopsy and something went wrong, and this is where it gets a bit hard to talk about. The truth is we just don’t really know. Why the hell don’t I know more? I was his friend of over Thirty years for fuck sakes! Jason and myself had a falling out some time before, the details of that falling out ring very clear to me but I don’t know if I want to get into all that. Jay would never admit it but he struggled with some other issues. I can’t say it was a result of his chronic pain but I am sure that amplified it. So, one of my oldest friends died and we didn’t resolve are differences. They certainly were not petty things but I think we could have resolved it and become the buddies we once were. I am not going to get the chance now and it really hurts. I am not sure why it hurts more this year than any of the last few, but it does. I mean, there was nothing that different about this year. Maybe it is this Pandemic, maybe it is the fact my own health has taken such an abrupt turn, maybe it was seeing his dad a few weeks back. Either way I got to live with it now and for the rest of my life. I could have been the bigger person and reached out sooner, there is a lot more to the story and those of us who really knew Jay can understand my position. I’ll see you one day “YOU FUCKER!”. In the mean time I wish you could accept my apology. Corona’s for everyone!!
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