OLD MEN GATHERING
On Friday our old men‘s group meets in McDonalds. There was another group of old men in the Black Mountain McDonalds gathered in a circle as there was in the harbor cafe in Hydra last week and in every cafe Susie and I sat in in Morocco. Our group is mostly retired Warren Wilson faculty who have been meeting for 12 years, first in the Oteen McDonalds, then the River Ridge McDonalds and now in the Black Mountain McDonalds. We meet in McDonalds because the senior coffee is 89 cents and becasue we can sit for as long as we want without someone attempting to have us pay up and leave.
Today one of the subjects we talked about was John, the brother of Tom Showalter, one of the regulars. On Friday John moved into Hospice care. Cancer has spread all over his body. He is dying.
John has come to our group several times. The last time I saw him at our group meeting was the week before I went to Sicily and Greece. John is 82. Everyone in the group is 80 or very nearly there. Two of our members in the last five years have died. Everyday in the news someone famous in their 80‘s dies. Kathe died in her 80‘s and so have several of my good friends. Once you are 80 death is expected. You can no longer die young or unexpectedly. Why some of us haven‘t died is a mystery, but we will, and soon.
So Friday, all day, I was sad, for John and his family, but for all of us who are soon to die. Death is certain and it is inexplicable, a mystery, or rather, the fact that we were here at all is a mystery. I guess being here at all should cheer me up.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 