Unexpected Death

[Edwin]

Carol and I lived and worked in a remote place for 10 years deep in the Cascade Mountain Range. It was Chelan National Recreation Area. It was part of the National Park, but with a different designation because the Park is more restricted not allowing recreational activities and people living in the area. Anyway there was this guy there that was our supervisor. He was a fly fishing expert with expertise in fly tying and anything to do with that, and that is probably how he ended up there fly fishing the Stehekin River. By the time we moved there he had already been there several years, and we stayed 2 years after he had already moved out. He was a friend as well as our supervisor. He planned and directed our work, and he was responsible to see that the operation was a success. I was a tour driver giving narration while I drove people around as well as operating a lunch tour during the summer months. During the winter I provided transportation driving people to go skiing and snow shoeing. He moved back to his home country, and then 2 years later we also moved 150 miles north of where he was at.

Since we have been here we have been keeping contact with emails and facebook. He was adopted and just a few weeks ago he found his birth family with made him very happy, and his birth family as well. He was 60 years old, and we were not aware that he had any health problems, so it was a shock when we receieved word that he died in his sleep. I don't know whether a cause of death has been determined, but there are a number of possibilities. He had a low tolerance for pain, and he periodically took more powerful pain relievers than most people. He also drank alcohol more than I think he should have. So it could have been a combination of alcohol and medication. He also had a developing diabetic problem, and he may have gone into a diabetic comma. We don't know, and we probably will never know, but he died unexpectedly, and I think he died too young for someone with no health detectible problems that seemed life threatening. We are sorry. He is gone, and we will miss him! We don't know if they immediately buried him, or if they cremated him, but yesterday we drove for 3 hours and attended a memorial service for him.

[Smiley]

We never know for sure exactly how long we have left.
We all are making plans for the future,or "down the road". It`s good to plan ahead but also it is good to be aware that we do not know for sure when we will close our eyes on this earth.
It is probably wrong to be too morbid on the subject but good to be aware.

[Edwin]

You are right, Smiley, it is good to be aware. Just like this guy we thought he would live on and on for years, because it did not appear anything was seriously wrong with his health, anymore than any other time in the last 15 years that we have known him. You are right, Smiley, not one of us knows whether or not we will be alive today, tomorrow, or next week. This guy went to sleep and didn't wake up. It was nice to meet with many friends at his funeral, but naturally, Carol and I felt badly about the whole thing. For one thing he didn't give God much time or attention that any of us knew about, but he knew about God and salvation, so it was his decision, and he may have made his peace at the end, and we can only hope that may have been the case. He would want all of us to go on living and being happy though, so that we will do!

[Smiley]

I just lost a very good friend.Not a thing wrong with him,going through a normal day and had a massive coronary.I was told that he was dead before he hit the floor.
He was a world class guitarist and a well known bluesman. He played with most of the greats.

Here is a small sample: http://youtu.be/CKpFTQXYVIA

[Edwin]

Thank you, Smiley, for sharing that. I might have heard his name, I'm not sure. I took a Jazz music class a couple of years ago that covered the history of the music from New Orlean, Chicago, and New York mainly. It was very interesting, and I enjoyed it very much. I liked a lot of the old music, and then some of the old Gospel music was part of that as well, and the older entertainers from past years.

I think what is happening, is that we are getting older, and the percentage of our acquaintences that things happen to are going up, and up, and up, and it seems like everyone is dying. Many from cancer, and we have lost a whole bunch of friends that we associated with, worked with, played with, and they were our good friend, and they are dying! We haven't heard what exactly happened to this guy except he died in his sleep, and it was a shock because he was quite a bit younger than we are. Some things I know about him was that he drank alcohol every night while we worked with him. He could always function the next day, and it never affected his performance. He came to work lots of times with dark glasses on so that people could not see his blood shot eyes. We had an emergency once, he was glad to come help, he was pretty drunk, but he managed to do what was necessary, and it amazed me.

The other thing about this poor guy was that he would take medication that was probably too strong, too much of it, and he was drinking at the same time, and I think while we worked with him, it almost killed him at least once, because he told us that he thought he was dying. The other thing is that he gained weight on a regular basis, and he got pretty heavy towards the end, so who knows what happened to him. He was a good guy, but he didn't mind making enemies if he needed to, and he did, but we still liked him, and were very sorry to lose him. He was a talented guy, guided the world champion fly fisherman a few years agao. That was sad and we will miss him!