*Poof* a life is extinguished. Cancer SUCKS!

[DFW]

We knew it was coming. One of our best friends just went peacefully in her sleep. She and her husband have been close to us for about 30 years. They live(d) in Holland about an hour and a half west of us. We used to travel to Berlin and Barcelona a few times a year together. Stockholm, once, too. Even Cape Cod about 15 years ago.

She was diagnosed just after my wife had her second battle with cancer. Like my wife, our friend had "the murderer." But her form of cancer is called The Murderer because it never gives any obvious sign until it is too late. My wife beat it only because it was discovered in its initial stage by accident. Otherwise there probably would have been two funerals next week.

I spoke to the family this morning. We'll be there in Holland on Tuesday for the services. Time to double donations to the American Cancer Society and Sloan Kettering. Both my parents and all their siblings had cancer. So, for me it's not "if," but "when."

Cancer sucks.

[bronxiteforever]

1. Cancer does. Just lost my brother to it in March.

RIP to your friend.

[Coventina]

2. Long-time friend battling aggressive lymphoma.

Doctor just gave him 2 years, maximum, and that's IF everything goes "best-case possible."

Hate cancer with a passion.

[DFW]

9. So do we

I gnash my teeth in anger at the thought of $25 billion for a border wall that will have more figurative holes than Swiss Cheese, and probably zero for cancer research.

[samnsara]

3. i'm so sorry...

…(((hugs)))

[TuxedoKat]

4. So sorry

for the loss of your beloved friend.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. I'm sorry for the loss of your friend. I'm a Stage IV cancer survivor. Almost 10 years.

[DFW]

7. Wow!

You are a beacon of hope for the rest of us who are facing/will face it.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Oh no, my dear DFW........

I am so sorry.

Safe passage to her and my deepest condolences to you and all who love her...

[DFW]

8. There were many.

There will be a LOT of people there on Tuesday. After the decades of good times we had spent together, it's hard to come to grips that she just isn't there any more.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. That is one of the toughest things to bear...

[Duppers]

11. 😩 So sorry.

It's horrible losing a close friend to death of any kind.

[DFW]

12. It hit my wife particularly hard

We had all gone out together in Berlin in February, visited with her at her home near Arnhem during her chemo, and my wife survived it where our friend did not (although pretty much no one does).

[malthaussen]

13. Please accept my condolences

[DFW]

14. Thanks, Mal

After so many decades, there's no instruction manual for adjusting to the fact that someone whose existence you always took for granted no longer is.

[malthaussen]

15. James Taylor nailed that one.

"I always thought that I'd see you again."

As we pile up years, the list of those we won't be seeing again grows.

-- Mal

[DFW]

16. Don't I know that

My list of four prominent friends who were "amazing 80-somethings" is now down to two 90-somethings. We're not yet at the point where "they're dropping like flies," but we will be some day--if I don't drop as the first fly--always a distinct possibility with my medical history.

[malthaussen]

17. I expect that the day after I die, they'll discover immortality.

I'll cop to a vague sense of curiosity as to what happens next, but I'm in no particular hurry to find out.

-- Mal

[DFW]

18. A friend of mine in Dallas is a little obsessed with the concept of immortality

He even wrote a novel called "The First Immortal," which was about a contemporary guy enrolled to get frozen in the event of a drastic medical calamity. He even enrolled himself in one of those programs, although I don't know if that part is still current.