April is a difficult month for me. Its not that it always have, there are plenty of great things to celebrate this month. My mother, brother, son, and besty foresty’s birthdays are all this month… one after another. These are awesome moments to celebrate..
In 2016 I went into Duke Hospital for one hell of a medical ride. Surviving the cancer, with everything I went through personally weighs heavily on my mind with comparison to all those who did not, have not, and will not survive theirs. Case in point. January of that year, I started the process of getting a bone marrow transplant. While the process leading up to it was not that bad, cept for that bone barrow biopsy. On the way down for me to check into the hote….hospital, I received a call that the man I considered a mentor to me had passed. Not even from the initial cancer that almost took him the first time, but lung cancer that snuck up out of nowhere.
It broke my heart.
He was a kind man, a very well read and out spoken gentleman. If ever there were a human being to aspire to be, it would be him. He taught me a lot about being human, and being strong. He told me about how he was part of one of the marches in Alabama during desegregation. Here he was, a very white man, walking along side African Americans, when he was accosted by one of the cops at the time. This officer drug him by his hair to a barber shop and at gun point forced the barber to shave his head. It doesn’t seem like much, but at the time it could have been a lot worse for him.
After learning of his passing, I was devastated. But I pressed on. The thought of guilt had not fully set in. Really, that didn’t start happening till the second death that year.
So now I look at April each year with happiness for being able to celebrate my brother, mother, son, and besty foresty’s birthdays. Luckily these are all near the end of the month. I start April each year looking at it in disdain.
Regardless… to you good sir, Mr Owen Schultz. This parting glass will always be for you good sir. I hope one day I live up to the expectations you had of me.
