Dear Ken,

I wish you were alive to read this.

When Phil sent me the email this weekend, I felt so sad that we hadn’t talked for a while.

Now it’s too late.

Why is it people always think there is time?

In September when you were diagnosed, I knew it was a bad thing. Two other friends have died of ALS in the past 5 years. I’ve never seen a more swift and destructive disease. So I knew how fleeting life could be, yet I didn’t call. Why?

I think in my mind, I believed you to be positive and strong, and that you would hang in there long enough to check off all the things on your bucket list. And I was SURE I would see you again.

Now I think of you doing what you most loved—camping, fishing, sleeping under the stars. Is that where you are now? I really hope so.

I’m going to miss our long conversations about everything under the sun. There is a handful of friends I can do that with, and you were one of them.

If  there a lesson to learn here, it’s this—life won’t wait. So when I’m THINKING of someone, I need to reach out instead of expecting there will always be time down the road.

Because all of a sudden, it runs out.

Sending a virtual hug from afar—

Love, Terri