You never know

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

I was in line at the drive-through at McDonald’s on Tuesday, getting a double cheeseburger combo for myself and starting my grandson down an unhealthy path by getting him his firstever Happy Meal (hey, I got apple slices and milk,so it wasn’t all that bad), when my cell phone rang.

It was a friend of mine named Tracy — only it wasn’t actually Tracy. It was his mother, and before she even got two words out I had a moment of sudden certainty about why she was calling that turned out to be exactly correct.

She was calling to let me know that Tracy had passed away the day before. He was only 58, so I had to ask if it had been unexpected or if he had been sick or what, and she told me that he had been battling cancer (side note: I hate cancer).

It had been a few months since I had spoken to Tracy. We used

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to hang out a lot during my days of wotking at Southland. I was the Director of Racing and he was a trainer for one of the kennels. We also played golf and he and his wife at thet time would hang out and such occasionally.

But that was several years ago and for the past little while, I would just happen to run into him and we’d play catch-up. One of those run-ins happened just a few weeks ago, right before the elections. Even though he was “just” a dog trainer, he was a pretty well-informed guy and always had some clever commentary on the world.

Anyway, that was the last time I saw him, even though I had no idea that the last time I saw him would literally be the last time I saw him.

As we were weighing the possibilities of another Trump term and my Dad’s chances in the city council election, he never gave any kind of indication that he was sick, but I have to think that he knew, otherwise that would have had to have been some seriously aggressive cancer.

Maybe he didn’t want anyone to know? Maybe he just wanted to have a fun conversation with an old friend without having to go into the whole bit. I guess I’ll never know.

Because that’s the thing… you never know when the last time you see someone will be the last time you see them, so never pass up the chance to spend some time with a friend.