This post is in memory of a dear friend who took the time to set up my computer for internet access. Then stepped back and smiled and said "There, now you can surf the world wide intenet." When I asked what does it do, he said ask it any question and you will find all kinds of information on anything. I could hardly believe it, so I asked about judo, kendo, and other obscure things, and sure enough there were whole sites out there. He then wryly said, "that will keep you busy for hours now."
He was so right. He was always kind to me, laughed at my lame jokes, buffered me and was a real friend. I will miss him, we went to work for separate companies after awhile, but I'm interviewing at the company he went to work for and thought of looking him up for a quick chat. I tried to find him through social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook before, but couldn't. That was odd, especially since he was an engineer, up on all the latest. Some people like to stay private though, so I didn't worry about it until now. I tried googling him and found very, very little information, which was really odd, but the little I did find, seemed to lead to articles, and when I opened them, they were obituaries. I had to read them several times over before it dawned on me that he really had died in 2007. No wonder my emails went unanswered and my attempts to locate him in social media was futile.
I was rocked, he was only 44, slim, tall, and rather athletic. He died of a heart attack. It just didn't seem real. There were years to catch up at some later time, when work and child raising didn't get in the way.
The lesson for today is, use social media, stay in touch with friends, especially those that matter and mean something to you. Reach out, don't be shy, and say hi to the people in your past that you are fond of. Share a little smile while you can. I just sent a few friends a note to just say hi. Maybe that's odd, but it would be a pity to not keep in touch when I feel they really do matter.
