News has come around thar a life-long friend of mine has been diagnosed with and is receiving treatment for stage IV melanoma.

We grew up just a few blocks apart. I think we each thought the other was the smartest kid we knew. I know he pushed me to try harder.

When faced with sending us to the rough, and arguably not so good, neighborhood high school, my mom moved us to a better neighborhood. With this we just grew apart. We went to different schools, hung around with different kids, and just went our own way. Our paths crossed just after high school, and then not again for fifteen years.

When the wife and I got married, we, of course, invited friends from work. One of the wife's co-workers had the same last name as my long lost buddy, and I mentioned this to my then fiance. She replied that she thought her friend's husband's name was the same. It turns out that when he pulled the invite from his mailbox that he excitedly mentioned that he thought I'd looked him up, only to be told that the invitation was from her co-worker.

Because of this work link, we had occasion to run into each other from time-to-time, but life still had us doing different things. I guess I figured we'd have time to reconnect.

It looks like that might not be the case. It seems that they didn't look for or find his cancer until it'd spread to his arms, legs, and lungs. Tough break that. It sounds like they're attacking this aggressively.

I wish him the best, and regret not reconnecting better sooner.