So, I heard from an old friend
 

I have a friend that I have known since as far back as I can remember. His parents and mine hung out when we were just babies so...I have known him for a while. We grew up together and went into the military together. After that, we came home and he moved to Texas and I stayed here. We always kept in touch and as a matter of fact, he won $5k from me back when ultracash had $5k giveaways. We always talked on our birthdays and if anything happened in our lives, we let each other know.

So, I was surprised and a little pissed off last year when my mother died and I heard nothing from him. We didn't talk for the entire year after that. I saw that his sister posted on our local newspaper's guestbook and decided to write last night. She wrote back telling me that not only did their mother die as well but, her brother had a massive stroke over a year ago and nobody found him for 12 hours. He also had a brain bleed during the stroke. He is now living with his sister and she is taking care of him. He has a lot of problems and can't even wash himself anymore. He has a full time nurse that also takes care of him.

I feel especially old today.

...and expecially sad. Very few friendship last that long.

Yeah, I just heard from him again.
In a short time, his mother died, he had a stroke and his wife left him.

Damn...

Sorry to hear that Jim. Longtime friends are too rare and very precious.

Wow, that really, really sucks. Poor guy has had it as rough as comes.