Gut Punch

I'm 70, soon to be 71. Been out here since I was 53 or so. I'm starting to lose friends and the pace is quickening. Mike who with family stayed here for years passed last year. Family will be out later this year to leave ashes at one of his favorite places.

Bill, who was the first person I hired to work here passed late last year in Hawaii. I took the 2am phone call.

Ivan the Terrible as he was called around here taught me how to track and he moved on at the end of last year.

Cliff had just stayed here last month, checked out, next day went fishing in Colorado and passed while telling the fishing guide how much he enjoyed staying here. His wife called to say he was gone and we had just said goodbye's less that 24 hours earlier.

Then last night I checked my phone and saw that both Linda and Heather had called within five minutes of each other. I returned Linda's call and she said my brother, three years younger than I had a heart attack and passed in Montana. Gut punch.

I don't know why but of all the memories I could have of my brother I remember at eight or nine years old he fell off the swing set and had to get stitches. I and friends snuck out of our houses that night and hiked the couple miles to the hospital. Pat was on the ground floor. We found his room and made faces at him through the window. He busted up laughing and they had to redo the stiches in his mouth and stomach.

I had just gotten my driver's license and Pat called the house to ask if I would pick him up at the movie theatre in Kearns. When I got there I didn't see him. Three large guys had him and a friend backed up to the wall of the theatre. I walked up and the biggest guy said "Is this your brother, the kid that's gonna beat the shit out of all of us?" Pat said "Yes." Pat and a friend had been shooting peope with squirt guns during the movie and not picking their targets too wisely. I said "If you don't mind I'd prefer to beat the shit out of him first and save you the trouble." That worked for them and we got out of it. We use to call each other on birthdays and then one year somebody forgot and neither of us called anymore. I wish I could call him now.