[continued from previous entry]
That mystery remains unsolved, but was elbowed aside in following days by weightier, more sobering matters. I've been working with photos taken just shy of four years ago, in the days after the Madrid bombings in March of 2004. None are images of carnage, all are shots taken in places where spontaneous memorials sprang up -- melancholy, not disturbing. Evocative for those who were in the city at that time.
And then this last Thursday morning, I received the news that a friend from back in the States had passed on -- I., a great person with a heart of gold. And not a sickly individual. Active, in good shape, and young for all that.
I'd known him for 15 years, give or take a century, had hung about with him when I lived in the Cambridge/Boston area. When I moved on, our contact shifted from 3-D to cyber -- email, im's, and most recently via Facebook, often in the form of poking each other in silly ways via the blatantly frivolous Superpoke application. The last time I'd heard from him was early this month (him throwing a virtual cheesecake at me via Superpoke), and since our communications tended to ebb and flow, a week or two of no contact rang no warning bells. I had no clue he'd dropped off the twig until I received a note from a friend of his -- again, via Facebook -- letting me know.
I mentioned it to a few friends who'd also known him, one found a funeral home's webpage that featured a wake announcement (along with a bad photo of I. -- maybe all that could be found on short notice). I noticed the page's various blurbs said nothing about how he'd died, had a sneaking suspicion that might mean something some would find unpalatable
[continued in next entry]
España, te quiero
rws 7:37 AM [+]
