I got to thinking about Ronnie tonight. He was a childhood friend who had muscular dystrophy. When I first met him at 9 years, he was fine. Then we kids noticed that he was walking around on his toes.
Then he started to fall over. That is a scary thing for kids. You know, when things don't work right...
I don't remember perfectly now, but I think he was a couple years older than me. His problems grew until he couldn't leave the house anymore. I used to visit him and we would play Monopoly. He enjoyed that. He had a bed with a lifting device eventually. It allowed his mother to change his sheets and clothes.
I don't understand the details of MS, but there came a day when he didn't understand Monopoly anymore. So I moved the pieces around the board and made up stories about his piece having fun on the board . Toward the end, he couldn't even move the hotels, so I did it for him. He was pretty much "out of it" by that point.
Then we moved away. I wrote him some letters at 14 years old. One day I got a letter back. His Mom said he had died. That was a terrible shock. My cousin Bobby had drowned 2 years before, now Ronnie was dead. I didn't understand death then very well. Kids were protected from that stuff when I was young.
No purpose to this, just a remembrance from many years ago... I think it was about this time of year.
Remembering you, Ronnie Richards...
1 comment:
You were a good kid, Mark... Most kids would not have stuck by a sick friend that long.
Maybe it's the time of year. I find myself thinking about friends lost lately, as well. Lots of 'what ifs' there...
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