Blog 21 March 1, 2012
Emotions
This week has been a very emotional week. On Tuesday evening I received a phone call from my lawyers office! It was one of the lawyers that is a college of my good friend, Me S, Downs . I thought that he was calling me to give me a message from my friend who is usually in court or doing something!
He was calling me to give me sad news my friend had passed away on Saturday February 26 2012 of a sudden heart attack.
My wife and I were devastated he and his wife attend our wedding, in October and that was the last time we had spoke to him. I remember that I had not spoken or e-mailed him in a while and I was going to do that, but of course we get busy and you know the rest!
He was a funny guy! He was about 6 foot 2 big strapping guy. He was one of guys that could disarm with his smile and had a hearty laugh.
We first met when I had security company and he took care of all the paper work and rest was history we became more that client lawyer became friends.
If any of you ever heard my wife say her job was to keep me alive and out of jail, well it because of him I stayed out Jail, (when you run a security company, you can get in trouble really quick)!
That is how we became good friends. When I started to lose my eyesight he called me and said if anyone bothers you, you call me and I will take that for you and he meant it.
He was like having a big brother when you are in trouble, and he would take care of it. I would call him with issues and he would just say “ Don’t worry about that I will take care of that for you, you just go and take care of your son and wife” and I would thank him and leave the office feeling ok. A couple of days later he would call and tell me he took care of that issue, he would then tell me to take care and then he would hang up the phone, he would not wait for a thank you.
It is friends like that when they pass away is when we say I never got the chance to tell them how much their friendship meant to me.
I can honestly say that was not the case for me, I made a vow several years ago when I got sick that I would take every opportunity to tell my friends and family how much they mean to me every chance I got.
At my wedding the first person I thank was Mr. Sylvain ,Downs because of him many bad things in my life did not happen. I remember my wife and I went to see him before I went into the hospital for my big surgery.
After we finished talking he said to my wife you call me and tell me how he is doing, and if you need anything or you have any problems you call me, and for a few months after the surgery he would call to see how I was doing and if I needed anything.
I will finish with this at our wedding we played a song for the bride and father dance or in our case our oldest son, by a group called Selah. The group is a contemporary worship group, the song was called
In my life/If we never meet again.
The lyrics go something like this; If we never meet again on this side of heaven, then we meat down by the shore!
My best man and one of my best friends asked why did we choose that song, I simply put it that the words say it all.
So I will leave you with this, don’t leave anything on table! Life is too short tell the people who mean the most to you every day how special they are to you, tell your kids you love them every day, and your spouse, smile more and dance like nobody watching.
Because if you never meet again on this side of heaven, then you have to wait until you meet by those beautiful shores!
This was in memory to one of my best friends Sylvain Downs, you will be sadly missed!
J&A and Family
