I just lost a close friend.
Eddie and I went WAAAAY back. We saw Jim Zorn toss to Steve Largent, we watched Gaylord Perry notch his 300th win in the Kingdome. We played golf and softball together. His dear Mother dang near adopted me. His sister and I were, and remain, very close.
Since our initial meeting in 1980 we hung in many of the same circles for 30 years. We shared the women and we shared the wine.
We had more good times than I suspect we had a right to.
I didn't know that Eddie had been battling diabetes for a few years and that his ulcers bled and that he continued to smoke, drink and enjoy the fatty foods that these days we all try to avoid. His business went through wild swings of instability, depending on the economy and local building volume.
His wife, almost overnight, moved out.
Eddie was insightful, spiritual without over zealousness and was one of the funniest guys I have ever had the pleasure to meet.
In 1982 we turned down the TV volume of the World Series and did our own two-mic play-by-play commentary. By the second inning I was laughing so hard tears were falling like infield flies. I have the cassette somewhere and will dig it out and post a highlight or two.
An hour before he died today, I stood bedside hugging his niece alongside a half-dozen others lucky enough to be able to drop everything and get to Swedish Hospital to say good-bye.
When I got home his sister Linda posted that he was gone.
I had two appointments upon my hasty return, one of them with a classmate of his who is designing our new site. He is also a screenwriter and when I told him of Eddie's passing he looked skyward and told me of a line of dialogue he had written this morning. Went like this:
Don't trade your time for money,
trade your time for passion.
Words to live by.
Words with which I am sure Eddie would agree.
There are no good-byes among friends so please rest in peace until we meet again my friend.
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