I've been thinking about what to write for the last few days. Pandemic. Isolation. Working on puzzles. Cold weather and the beauty of the snow.
Then yesterday I learned that a friend had died. His name is/ was David Heagy. We knew him from the Unitarian church I started to attend in 1998. I first met him at a circle dinner. That's where people from the church announce that they are hosting a dinner and they have a certain number of seats available and if you RSVP and they have space you go. I attended several of these.
Some time later, Nick and I were invited to join a dinner group that called itself the "extended family" and alternately the "BGs" (blessed group). We have been in the extended family group for somewhere between 10 and 15 years.
At one point, I was the person who kept track of who was hosting, and who had not hosted or who had hosted, David took over this job when I asked him for help managing ,
David was a great organizer and kept track of everyone's schedule every year and also keeping us up to date on how everyone was doing.
And now, David is gone. David and his wife Lily were an integral part of the "family" . And now, Lily is alone. With Covid, I don't even know if Lily was able to spend any time in person with David.
Here's to a friend. A man with boundless energy. He and Lily traveled all over the world, often bicycling around the countryside of the places they visited.
David is the only person I know personally who was at Woodstock! As I recall, he told us that he was newly out of the US Marine Corp and he went with a friend. David said he thought he was the only person there in a button down shirt!
David's pictures and words lovingly lifted from his Facebook page
Hair getting longer after leaving Camp Lejeune in March. Still in cultural transition. You can tell by the button down oxford shirt- the only one at Woodstock.
I have not said why David died. Well, who knows why. But how he died is a sad and also almost ordinary story. On December 20, 2020, David fell on the stairs in his house. His wife heard him and when she went to see what happened, she found him on the floor with blood on his head.
David was in the hospital and then eventually moved into a rehabilitation center. He was receiving physical therapy, and last week there was some hope that he was making some gains in recovering some of his cognitive abilities.
And then, yesterday , he died.
Photos lifted from David's Facebook page
Hiking 2017 (I am not sure where)
David was an award winning photographer. I choose not to borrow any more of his photos.
Goodbye David. We will miss you terribly
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