Friends

This last week, two of my favorite people died. One in Rhode Island and the other in North Carolina. My good friend Frank Pasquale who worked with me at the Middletown Public Library as custodian is gone. A veteran of WWII, he had carried a bazooka in the European theater and saw many of his friends killed. When 911 happened, he said he would sign up again if they let him so that young people would not have to go. What a fine and honorable person he was. What a wonderful spirit.

I received a phone call letting me know that Frank had died at the same moment I received an e-mail that my friend Robert Reed had died in North Carolina. Robert was a mentor and a creative, artistic, musically talented, witty, joyous person. He lost his life to a stroke. He was only 53 and left his wife and two wonderful daughters behind. Each week, I try to learn something new and share it here for a collective benefit. It is fine people such as Frank Pasquale and Robert Reed who inspire me and motivate me to continue to explore and grow. My friends will be missed. I am thankful and humbled that I got to know them while they were here.