I was to get the last plane back to London to resume my studies and be separated yet again from the love of my life. Just being with her had become my reason for life. Flight cancelled - a reprieve!. We were on the Old Airport Road returning to Belfast. There's a spot where the lights of the city are spread out all beneath you. Incredibly beautiful. Together we wept tears of joy just to be together for another few hours. If only we could have seized the moment and somehow made it permanent. In our psyches - we were young and penniless - we seemed doomed to tragedy.
My favorite memory of my best friend before he passed away was....just the long long conversations we use to have deep into the night, talking about ...life...God and music and stuff. ..
3 nights a week, over the summer; a friend and I would take a walk after dark. Eventually our route took us past the airport. By then it would be 11 pm. We'd climb a steep grassy embankment from the street, and sit up high against the airport perimeter fence. The runway threshold (touchdown zone) was just inside.
Perched on a stump for a stool, sharing what soon became the ritual snack of choice : sour skittles. Nothing else would do.
There was a wide cutting through the pine forest in the valley below. At midnight, a brilliant orb illuminated this channel. Growing bigger, and brighter, like the headlight of a steam locomotive thundering down tracks towards us.
Its lamp, turning night into day, we watched as a steel behemoth bore down on our tiny silhouettes below. Covering our ears as a giant airliner emerged, careening over the fence, and touched down behind us.
Sitting up there, above it all; we were king of the world and all we surveyed. Joking, snacking, and talking. It became a cherished, and fondly rememberd tradition.
When he was younger there wasn't a bench or seat he couldn't pass up. He wanted to sit on them and watch the world go by. He never did have that much stamina. Still likes to sit on benches when he's tired.
Several great friends and lots of good memories. With Bill, it would be the camping and fishing trips as teenagers. With Scott, it would be hours of kicking the football to each other, with both of us getting better.
Probably when he and I traveled Europe together the summer after high school. It was truly a moment of feeling like I had the whole world ahead of me, and there wasn’t anyone I would’ve wanted to share that with more than him.
