Friday night

Today at work I had a voice message from my deceased friend's partner. He'd called my work number last night after 8:00, asking me to call. (I'd given my friend--I'll call him "Bob"--my relatively new Magic Jack (VOIP device) number and cell phone the other day.) (Bob had never heard of a Magic Jack but said it sounded like someone he once dated.) (A bit of Bob's humor.) Today I called his partner back. He was having Bob's niece field his calls, since he wasn't up to talking to people. I asked her about the cause of death, mentioning the suffocation, and she said that it had since been determined (I didn't ask how) that Bob died of a heart attack. She gave me a web address to view his obituary (I signed the guest book). The funeral was today, at a funeral home out of state. Bob's body will be interred Monday in Miami. There's a service from 2:00 to 3:00. (His partner is arriving here on Sunday.) Unfortunately I won't be able to make the service. One of my co-workers is taking the day off for her uncle's funeral, and we're short-staffed these days. Someday I'll go to the cemetery and find Bob's crypt. I also have relatives in the mausoleum, and my mother and her mother are buried outside.

The heart attack thing worried me. I was back at the gym today after my nap. I'd been playing hooky in a belated celebration of my birthday. (The week of my birthday was very hectic.)

I hadn't spoken with Bob in over a year (time flies), and here he called me on Monday at work. We had a great talk, seamlessly picking up where we'd left off the last time we talked. (I did send them a Christmas card.) He asked about my brother and father, etc. Our talk really made my day. Somebody else wrote in the guest book today: "And just this past Monday night, very late ([Bob]'s social hours were usually later than most), we had one of our rare long talks, about the good ole memories." Maybe Bob sensed that he was sick and was calling all his friends before something happened to him. (His niece said he also called her.) Bob had told me he'd call me back at home that night or the next to have a longer talk about things (his father apparently has cancer and is refusing chemo--he's in his 80's). I didn't hear back from him on Monday, so I called him myself on Tuesday night and left a message. Didn't hear back. Then he died early on Wednesday morning. The niece also said that Bob had told her he'd call her back but didn't. (Maybe he was busy calling other people.)