Lost a Friend
I lost a friend this afternoon. He died from complications following surgery. Some would say Kirby was living on borrowed time. He had died 3 times on the operating table during bypass surgery a few years ago and they had to put a pig valve in his heart. They had to transport him to a big city hospital from one of our local hospitals in a helicopter and he was in such bad shape, he didn't remember it. He started a collection of pigs to honor his valve and his friends gave him anything pig when they found it. He, then, had a pacemaker put in and had problems with it. He retired about a year ago. I worked with Kirby for 19 years while at Channel 10 here in Waco. We didn't always get along. I guess you could, say at times, we had a love/hate relationship. It was a running joke around the station that we hated each other, but we liked it that way. I even introduced him to my two sisters at the visitation for my mom as the guy I hated. But, there was a true friendship there. I remember a funny story about him. I had dated a woman from a singles group who said she knew him. I asked her how she knew him and she said she didn't think she should tell me how. Well, she finally told me and the next Monday I told him about the conversation and how the woman didn't want to tell me how she knew him. He asked me if it was because he was gay. That was quite a shock to me and told him no. I told him she had told me they were in an epilepsy support group. He asked me if it made a difference to me that he was gay. I said no,,,"should it"? Although we had our differences, I will miss Kirby. RIP my friend.
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