Roy was 60 years old the last time we talked. I must have been about 35 or so. He was a fascinating guy. He had a rare copy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead that he would allow close friends to see at his house. He grew up close to Moundsville WV, along with Charles Manson, who he once told me, “...was a little cry baby who would stir shit and then hide behind his grandmother’s skirt. Once I caught him far enough away from her that I beat the shit out of him before he could get to her.”
We were standing by the coffee pot one morning as we always did, when he offered me a cup. He was proud of his coffee but I declined saying, “I can’t. My doctor yelled at me yesterday, said to cut out caffeine and tobacco or risk a stroke, and my hyenal hernia is killing me too.”
Roy said to come back to his office and started asking me about a project we had going. When we got back there he pulled out a poke of tobacco, handed me a cup of coffee, looked at me seriously and said, “Here! We are put on this earth to enjoy, not deny. You can deny yourself your whole life and then die of old age…or…you could deny yourself everything and get hit by a truck tonight. What good does that do you?”
I laughed, put a big chew in my jaw, drank coffee, and listened to him as he went on to scold me for eating at my desk or skipping meals all together, and a lot of other stressful things. I listened to him closer than I had my doctor because he taught me so much about the plant we worked at.
Some months later, the last time we talked, it was much the same. We were eating lunch and he said he was ready to retire. He would have his house paid for in a few months, had a new car, and his wife was ready to travel and enjoy the grandkids. That was a Friday. On Monday he was not at work. I was told at 9 AM that he had a doctor appointment and would be in later in the day, but by 2 PM I learned they kept him because they found he had leukemia in an advanced state. He was dead in less than 3 weeks. The night I was told he had died I took it hard, but not as hard as I would have had we not talked about life so much in his last months. I knew this was a man who experienced life the way it should be. He had the enviable combination of being outspoken and intelligent which endeared him to most and pissed off the people he wanted to piss off. I hope I’m remembered as fondly someday.
