My Friend Bruce

He was a customer....at first.  

Big guy - not that old, but he'd had a stroke - more than one, actually - several years before, and had quite a lot of damage. Not to his thinking, so far as I know. He was very intelligent. But his mobility was impaired, and his speech was very slow. He was often frustrated by his speech - he knew what he wanted to say, but it would take a very long time for him to actually get the words out.

And of course, because of that, some people thought he was 'slow' and used ~that~ tone ....or spoke for him .... or just avoided even engaging in conversations with him.

Bruce had an ATV and would drive it down the trail to our video store to rent movies. Me, I have believed for as long as I can remember - okay - so we know that's not all that long, but anyway - as far as I know, for always - that all people deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. And, when I was working at the store, I was bored out of my freakin' skull anyway. So if some guy with a speech impairment wanted to hang 'round and chat, it was fine by me.

We became friends. Hubby & he became friends as well - although hubby soon started calling him my "boyfriend".

Bruce liked to fish, and was very happy when I agreed to go out fishing with him. We never caught a damn thing when we went fishing together. Never! Even though he had all the bestest toys - he had a room in his basement that was FULL of tackle and all sorts of fishing stuff I didn't have a clue about. He bought a second trolling rod.  We trolled. We caught nothing. LOL  Poor guy would go out by himself and catch great big ol' muskies - I saw pictures - and the cuts on his hands from dealing with 'em - so I knew he was telling the truth - but I would give him a hard time anyway.

He liked to read too, and had great taste in books. Clive Cussler, WEB Griffin - all kinds of authors I like - and he had every book in every series in hardcover. I used to borrow books all the time.

And he had the use of a computer too - and I helped him to learn to use it, although typing was so hard for him that he never did get good at it. It kinda sucked - if either his speech or his hands hadn't been so impaired he would have done well, and really enjoyed participating in a site like gather, or fishing sites, or....

Anyway.... Bruce died a while ago. It was winter, and he took the ATV out, and when he got back from his ride, in his own yard, he had a heart attack or a stroke or.... and he died. Not that long - a year or two now maybe? I don't remember! (That bothers me. I will ask hubby how long its been when he gets home.)  His brother let me know when I ran into him at the grocery store one day; hadn't thought to call me sooner - and I guess it doesn't matter, although I would have gone to his funeral if I had known.

Bruce was my friend. And yet I have not thought of him in ....I don't know how long. But today, I drove past the house where he used to live, and I thought of him.

And now that I have written this - and shared it with you - I will remember.