I have been doing some clean up on my computer and blog. I can not help but notice the posts and emails I got from Max the American guy (as compared to Max the Canadian woman who also writes to me). He and I never met, but we corresponded because of my involvement as a “Friend of Men Who Knit.”

As part of my current focus on maintenance, I have been glancing over my past blog posts. When I wrote here just over a year ago that I was going on a trip to Africa, Max wrote to me in support. In fact, this is what he said:

“Ahh, Life is a banquet, and you my friend are definitely partaking of the feast!”

Life went on. I had my trip and returned.

Then I got an email from Max August 17 saying he had been diagnosed with cancer. He declined to go into detail about his diagnosis other than to say that it was terminal and his time was already near.

And he passed away in mid-October. He was buried October 17, only two months after he sent me the note. It seems somehow soothing to me to read his lively note of support today. He *did* truly get it, that life was a banquet.

Today I was in a moody state of mind (winter does that to me). Funny how Max could turn my thoughts around even though he’s not of this earth any more.

Thanks, Max. What a friend you can be. Even now.

Remember, my friends… life can be short. Tell someone you love them today. It may feel odd to say it if you haven’t said so before, but you do not want to wish you had said something, when it becomes too late for words. I only wish I did not know this firsthand.

Photo: Garden in Karen, Nairobi, Kenya. The passage opens into yet another garden. It seems the right photo for this post…

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