Liam Larry, Revisited...

I have written about my buddy, Liam Larry...  he's a goof ball... I guess that's what makes us such good friends.

Death does weird things... he and I worked together, but he was friends with another colleague... and this other fellow up and died one day.  Liam Larry was lost... and he just kind of stumbled into my office one day...

'Shoes... let's go to lunch...'

I wasn't able to that day because of a lunch commitment with BoyShoes... the next day, Liam Larry came into my office...

'Shoes... let's go to lunch...'

... and I couldn't. I had a committee meeting that day... and he went into some kind of soliloquy about how I didn't like him... didn't want to be seen with him... etc etc etc...

I promised him that the next time he asked me to go to lunch, I would go. So the next day...

'Shoes... let's go to lunch...'

Okayokayokayokayokayokayokay, goddammit, let's go!!

... and we became friends.  And our lunch times together grew to include a cast of characters, depending on the day of the week...

Liam Larry can be such a trying soul... he can get on your last nerve... he can bug the fuck out of you...  and he has!!!

Not long after Liam Larry's above mentioned friend died, another colleague in our division died... and being the somewhat disrespectful sort of person that I am, I commented about how my Mom always talked about how people died in threes... and how I thought we needed to select the 3rd candidate ourselves... and perhaps save a more valuable colleague... you know, the sacrificial lamb sort of thing.

Then I got to thinking... you know what would be funny? Let's make a list of the three that are most likely to die...  Guess who was first on that list?? Yup... Liam Larry... Of course, how was I to know that the number 3 person on that list would actually die just within a few days!!! Sure made me look like a person of interest!!!

Anyhoo... I've posted about all of Liam Larry's health issues... THIS is one of them... but a search of 'Liam Larry' should find all of them...   

To make a long story short... Liam Larry needed surgery... he had a faulty valve in his heart... and what a family member of his described as 100% blockage on his left side...  Liam Larry had a pending date with Death...

Liam Larry had surgery yesterday... to replace the valve... and for the bypasses... I'm not a betting person, but had I been, I figured I would be spending this weekend at another funeral of another friend...  he just has no strength.

I got the best phone call last afternoon at about 6.30 PM ~Shoes~ time... that Liam had indeed survived his surgery, that he was in recovery, and that the doctors were of the opinion that he was going to be ok...

I had thought about writing about Liam Larry's pending surgery, but chose not to... because I didn't want to have to come back and write about another friend's funeral... I decided to wait and see what would transpire...

I got a phone call later last evening from his sister... that the doctor said he had only done a triple bypass... that Liam Larry needed another, but he just didn't want to chance it... but also that he thought given what he had been able to do, it wasn't necessary.  The doctor also told her that when he was talking to Liam just prior to surgery, that Liam told him that he had changed his mind, and didn't want the surgery afterall...  

Dumbass...

Of course, the truth is... people don't survive these surgeries... we take them for granted, given the great success rates that we hear about. Liam called me Saturday afternoon, and we talked... and at the end, he became emotional... I assured Liam that we would talk again when he was stronger...

I want Liam Larry to get better so I can get back to giving him all kinds of grief and assorted bullshit that he so deserves and expects from me...

After all... what are friends for?

~shoes~