We get old. Friends die. And it’s not something to which I want to become accustomed, but it’s something that’s going to happen, and the older I get, the more it does.
I just found out today that an old friend passed away in September. Mikey Nelson. Retired to China from the Air Force – lived right around the Chongqing/Chengdu area (a place I hope to visit someday) in a town called Zigong, as I recall. We weren’t super close, but we enjoyed each other’s company when we crossed paths – I probably much more than he. He was such a fascinating man. A musician – played the drums in a band with my friend Marty back in Monterey in ‘82. One of the best I ever knew in the Chinese language (he taught “change-management” to corporate Chinese when their companies were sold). Just that laid-back kind of guy who’d cross his legs and prop the elbow of his cigarette-hand on his knee while he took a drag.
We hadn’t been in touch much lately – we chatted some years back about banking and jobs in China. He was into baking bread and brewing beer and just being your typical renaissance man. As far as I knew, he was living the life.
So I was a bit shocked and quite sad to see his name in the memorial section of the monthly unit email list. He died in September after an illness, and that’s all I know right now. That, and that the world has lost such an interesting man.
