The needle on my record player has been wearing thin....

I was laying in the bed in my hotel room and out of no where a memory flashes in my head.  A memory I haven't thought about in quite some time, but it was so vivid, it was almost like it happened yesterday.  I felt a flood of grief come over me and I realized that sleep simply isn't going to happen.

It's about one month short of a year ago, when I was sitting almost exactly where I am now.  I was on travel for work, same town and same hotel.  I was catching up on my emails and facebook after a day full of meetings and recently had something new I checked religiously for updates.  One of my dear friends, Nick, was involved in a terrible motorcycle accident and was in and out of consciousness so his mother set up a Caring Bridge site to keep everyone informed on his health status.  Sitting in my hotel room, I checked Caring Bridge and saw a new entry.  Apparently the infection was spreading too fast for the doctors to control it.  You see, he had terrible burns on his body from the road and the skin that was burned was also terribly infected from all of the junk on the roads.  I remember how I felt when I read that the doctor's would be amputating Nick's leg.  I was devastated for him.  I called my sister and we cried.  I told her how I couldn't imagine how terrible it would be to wake up missing a leg.  I cried more when I thought of how if anyone could make it through something like this, it would be Nick.  He would always keep his spirit up.  I knew he wouldn't let missing a leg keep him from playing his guitar or going out and returning to the "old Nick" like nothing had happened.  I did not once think that he wouldn't wake up.  Or that losing a leg wasn't so bad at all compared to losing your life.  August 25, 2009 Nick took his last breath.  His body was unable to handle all that was happening and he finally passed away.  Two days later I started my blog.  I wanted to do a post for him, like a memorial, but every time I tried to start it I just couldn't do it.  So now, almost a year later I'm finally getting around to it.

Nick and I practically grew up together.  It's safe to say he is one of my oldest friends.  We were in kindergarten together, and countless other classes that followed.  When we were in elementary school he was the only boy I would invite to my birthday parties, you know because boys had cooties and all.  And he came to all of them.  We were in gifted classes together from 3rd to 8th grade, and had most of our classes together in high school.  In high school he was in a band, that my best friends and I were totally groupies for.  I'll never forget when they played Hit or Miss at a pep rally at school or the time the play at Project Graduation when we were so excited to be done with high school.  Or the countless shows I would go to at "The Den" to watch them play.  I remember when he worked at the mini-golf place one summer and we would go up there to see him (and play for free, of course).  And of course there was the time when he and my best friend were the other half to my double date for prom.  The late nights at Coram's (it's like our local Waffle House, but way better) and fun parties we would go to.  But the thing that sticks out the most in my mind is that I do not recall in the 20 years that I knew him anyone ever saying anything bad about him.  Or saying that he mistreated anyone.  He was a genuine person and nice to everyone it seemed.  He was one of the nicest, most caring human beings I have ever known and I was blessed to have had him in my life.

So this post is for you Nick, after almost a year of putting it off.  I know you are smiling down on us from heaven...