Who are we? We are our stories.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

The Damned Fool

Gene Linde died. As he got older he liked to travel to the far corners of the world and drink with strangers. They say he was at a party in Florida last week, passed out and never regained conscientiousness. It was probably his severe diabetes, which he completely ignored. His back was shot. He drank too much. You could see he was dying. Gene wouldn't listen. He owned 20 houses, but he wouldn't spend a dollar on a doctor. A couple of years ago he stopped over to the house. He had fallen and hit the back of his head the day before. He was trembling, his speech was slurred and there was blood draining from his ears. He wouldn't go to the emergency room because he had $5000 deductible! He could be aggravating as hell, but he was the first person there to help when you needed it. Why didn't the damned fool take care of himself? The damned fool.

1 comment:

Joe Hackenmiller said...

In loving memory of Gene Linde. He was an absolute gem of a human being. He cared more about others than he would ever care about himself, which is a shame. Losing Gene is a great loss.