Our connections become fragile over time

Don’t wait.

That was the philosophy that Deb and I took into making our spring break plans for a visit to one of my childhood friends.

We had discussed many possible short trips to take advantage of the time off I had from helping the News Advertiser during the break in school activities.

Dave moved into our northeast Fort Dodge neighborhood during our elementary school years, and became part of the small group of guys who constantly played sports together. My driveway was the main basketball venue. The huge open yard next to a church across the street from my house was the place we made our baseball and football fields. We did track meets down the sidewalk of North 29th Street for sprints, and the half-circle block adjacent to that street served as our “distance” race.

We were in each other’s weddings in the 1980s. In fact, I served as Dave’s best man.

Dave just celebrated his 66th birthday last week. But, that almost didn’t happen.

Last November we received word that Dave drove himself to the ER at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where he lives after a long career working for IBM. He thought he had pneumonia, battling an aggressive cough.

He did have pneumonia, but it was caused by a heart valve that had gone bad. Blood was leaking into his lungs. During procedures to prepare him for surgery, he had to be electrically shocked several times to get his heart back into rhythm. We almost lost him multiple times.

It’s been a long road back to recovery for Dave, but we had heard he was steadily making progress, and I told Deb a few weeks ago that what I’d really like for us to do during spring break is go up to visit Dave and Lisa.

His episode, and another of our Fort Dodge gang currently battling prostrate cancer, made it sink in that our times together are limited. How many chances we have left to see each other is not up to us. I need to be more proactive in making it happen.

So, we had a wonderful time together celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, enjoying meals and a ton of tournament basketball together. Dave is an Iowa State engineering grad, so he was having a blast watching the Cyclones win the Big 12 Tournament.

At times, we joked around and acted 15 again. Our wives had fun, as well.

As Deb and I drove back Sunday, we both felt great about our decision to connect with old friends, and show our care and concern for a great person who was literally in a battle for his life for 10 days just a few months ago.

Then, on our way back we learned through social media of another serious health battle involving a young man I coached at St. Malachy, when that school had its own basketball team. He’s undergoing a third surgery for a serious issue as I write this on Monday. He grew up with one of our sons.

Our lives can change at the snap of a finger. Our bodies aren’t in tune with our personal schedules and plans. When something goes bad, there isn’t an advance warning light like on your car dash. You can go from thriving and healthy, to flat on our back with your life in the hands of trained medical personnel.

I know Dave is grateful to live just a short drive from the Mayo complex, where he received some of the best care available on this planet. It’s the same medical campus where I once visited my father when he was being treated for serious heart issues in the late 1990s. It was kind of emotional to see the Saint Mary’s Hospital entrance I used to walk toward, wondering if dad was still alive.

We didn’t enjoy a lot of sunshine and beach time on this spring break. Heck, there were snow flurries in southern Minnesota as we departed on Sunday morning.

But, we couldn’t be happier with our spring break.

If there’s someone you haven’t reached out to for awhile whose relationship is meaningful to you, don’t hesitate. You truly have no idea how many chances you have left.

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Contact the writer:

Email: malachy.lp@gmail.com

Twitter: @larrypeterson