Memories of my friend and bedposts

It's March. A year ago, I travelled to the States. It was my last trip there. It was my last hotel stay.

It's crazy that I have been working from home for nearly a year. After this trip, I was asked to isolate at home. There were neither any COVID-19 cases in Minnesota, nor Ontario.

A year ago today, I had lunch with my dear friend in Minnesota. Little did we know that it would be our last get-together before she got diagnosed with Leukemia.

I miss her. I do have a happy memory to share.

Years ago, I returned to Minnesota to return my leased car. I had a three-year lease, but only worked in the States for two years before I got laid off. The car stayed in Canada with me for a year before I drove it down. I stayed with my friend in Iowa.

She let me know about a cool hotel that we needed to check out in her town. We went with her family. The hotel gave tours. We went upstairs to the bedroom. There was a couple looking around. The man looked at the bedposts. 

"These posts are so high. I could tie you up against them," he said to his partner.

He looked at my friend and me, a bit embarrassed. I seized the opportunity to say something.

"Too much information," I said with a smirk, which made my friend and I laugh.

I wish that I remembered what the name of that hotel was. I hope that it's still there.

My friend's passing

My dear friend passed away from Leukemia on Sunday. I got the news last hour.

It's heartbreaking. She enriched my life with her friendship. I am thrilled that I knew her for over twenty years.

Her last e-mail to me was that she loved our friendship. She loved me. She wished that we had travelled more together.

She was the ideal travel companion. We never had a disagreement when we travelled together, be it snorkelling or drinking beer. We knew that we would be travelling companions when we retired.

I have been looking at photos of her. I particularly like the one that I took of her with her daughter at a playground. They are both smiling, with her young daughter hugging her.

I was fortunate to have met up with her for lunch back in December 2019, and January and March 2020. I will remember hugging her for the last time after lunch and waving to her as she drove off.

I am happy that I got to say that I loved her and cherished our friendship. I am at peace telling her what I needed to before she passed on.

May she rest in peace.

My friend checking into a hospice

My dear friend wrote to me in the wee hours yesterday morning. She was to be air-ambulanced from Houston to a hospice later on that day. She should be there by now.

It is painful that she started her year being able to walk, went for cancer treatment during the summer, and ended up paralyzed a few months later thanks to an aggressive form of Leukemia.

I'm on vacation, but have been reading up on this horrible disease. The thought of losing her is scary and normal. I am trying to be as supportive as I can be.

My friend's cancer turn for the worst

I got some discouraging news from my friend who has been battling leukemia for several months. I've been bummed about this news since learning about it just after 4 pm on Thursday.

She let me know that her treatment in Houston has failed. The cancer has now spread to her spine and she is paralyzed from the waist down. Radiation hasn't helped shrink her tumour, either.

She will be air-ambulanced back to the Mayo Clinic in my former home of Rochester, MN either today or shortly thereafter. 

It's encouraging news that she will be with family before Christmas. However, this news wasn't what we all wanted or expected.

Her message to me had an ominous tone to it. It's understandable, but I may be reading into it more. She ended it with the following:

"I really enjoyed our friendship. I love you and wished we could have travelled more together!"

I let her know that I treasure our friendship and said that I love her back. She is a dear friend and the thought of losing her is devastating. I continue to pray for her.

I hope that my seeing her in March wasn't my final time. Not being able to see her during a pandemic and with a closed Canada-US border is frustrating.

My friend's status

My friend, who is going through a trial in Houston for her cancer, was hoping that she'd be in remission. Sadly, it's not the case and she's continuing to do treatments.

She was diagnosed with Leukemia in June. I last saw her in March. If it weren't for a pandemic, I'd fly out to see her.

One of her friends has set up a GoFundMe page to help her out with expenses. I have contributed.

I am so pleased with my financial situation. If you had asked me to contribute last year in October, I wouldn't have been able to. I'm glad that I can help out a bit.

I am hopeful that she will be in remission soon.

My friend and a product manager

My friend, who has leukemia, has provided an update and it's promising. She went through a trial and she may be in remission. She'll know for sure on Wednesday. I like good news!

At work, it's busy, as we are gearing towards a major software release. I have been restructuring a section of our documentation that is long overdue, but it also conforms to changes that we have done recently. 

The review with the product manager and software architect was smooth. I'm pleased.

With the product manager, he seems to like me more than I recall. In the past, he grumbled about an issue in our documentation to my manager. The latter defended me by saying that I delegate the work to students, so the fault wasn't exactly solely mine.

I have worked with this product manager more closely over the past year or so. When we used to be in the office and once had a major meeting where it was standing room only, he actually pushed me in front of him, as he's probably 6'4" and I'm half a foot shorter. It was a nice gesture to allow me to see what was happening.

He does have a girlfriend, so we won't go into any romantic what-if scenarios. However, he does do smileys in his e-mails, more to me than most. Maybe he's just a flirt.

Update from my friend with cancer

On Saturday, I received an update from my friend who is battling leukemia. She has finished her treatments at a clinic in Houston. It's a clinical trial.

She is now staying at an Airbnb. She is a high risk to travel during this pandemic, as she has had a liver transplant. As a result, she's not flying home and will likely continue her stay in Houston for a bit.

I hope that her treatments are effective. She has to do a biopsy next to find out. I hope that there is good news.