Joe

I played golf with Joe Monday. He died Wednesday. It was a shocking and unexpected death.

While waiting to tee off Monday Joe told me for the first time he had a slow growing form of leukemia. He said he had had it for about seven years. Doctors told him, he said, he could have many years left. He had lost of lot of weight and was much thinner than when we first met about 10 years ago.

But he seemed more concerned about the state of his game than the state of his health. Years ago he had been a club champion. When I first started playing with him at our municipal course he was in the low to mid 80s. I was mostly in the low 90s with an occasional breakthrough into the 80s. I remember one round where Joe had an 82 and I had an 83, my best score ever.

Lately, we both had trouble breaking 100. We were supposed to play again on Wednesday. But Tuesday afternoon Joe called one of our foursome to say he couldn't play because he was going to the emergency room.

I called his home Tuesday evening to find out how he was but had to leave a message. I called again Wednesday morning before going out to play but there was no answer. I had just gotten home that afternoon when Joe's wife called to tell us he had died. The cancer had attacked his entire body and he went into cardiac arrest. Several attempts to resuscitate him failed.

My wife and I and Joe's other golfing buddies sat together at his funeral this morning.

It was a beautiful day for golf,