Well shit! Just shit! They found an aneurism in his aorta so it looks like he's anchored to his hospital bed for the remainder. Even if I tried, it would set me back $7500 because I would have to transport him by ambulance 400 miles. If I could afford it, I'd think about it but unfortunately ya gotta draw the line somewhere. Doesn't look like he's gonna be coherent anyway, so I guess I'll just go pay my respects and leave it at that. Prolly the best thing anyway. How would ya like to wake up just to be told ya have 2 months to live? What a ****ed up deal!
Sometimes going to visit and enjoying those last moments are really what culminate a great friendship.
Something similar happened to a very good friend of mine. We served in Berlin together and this guy was 20 times the musician I'll ever be. Played all the brass instruments, not just one or two. Was capable of arranging music just by spinning a record and writing down what he heard. Amazing skill in that area, and his stuff was not only playable, it was interesting and entertaining for our audiences.
He was a bit of a strange cat, though, and didn't play the Army game real well. I later learned that he was actually autistic, in a savant kind of way.
He played accordion at my wedding, because by then he'd gotten tired of playing brass instruments and wanted a new challenge.
We corresponded for years and during the times when it was most dark for me, he graciously fielded my letters and wrote back in the spirit of encouragement and friendship.
About 3 years ago he notified me that, though some heart medication that he'd been on, he developed interstitial lung disease. He wasted away to almost nothing. His wife threw him out of the house when he was the sickest and slammed the door on him. They nursed him back to a semblance of health, the wife bailed out of the dump that had become their home, and he had it cleaned out and started over.
When I heard all this, I went down to visit him, halfway knowing it would be the last time. In October of 2013, I traveled down to San Antonio and paid him a visit. We went out to eat, talked a long time, or as long as his strength held out, and I helped him take care of a few errands.
Richard Naujoks passed away 4 months later.
I was glad that I took the time to go visit him, believing it was the least I could do to honor our friendship.
He's buried in a military cemetery in San Antonio.
