In my last posting I stated that we were waiting for an email reply from our friend and neighbor in California.
My husband had sent an email to him Sunday morning. Saying that we were reminiscing about the good old days. When Jim tried to make a golfer out of my husband! And how we had the best neighbor.
That evening we still hadn’t heard anything back.
I figured he was away. We can’t expect everyone, a world away, to respond immediately. No matter how prompt we consider them. Can we?
But I had a weird feeling. A sinking feeling.
And I googled our friend’s name.
His smiling face popped up immediately.
In his obituary.
I just said, “Oh, God!”
Jim passed away at the end of June. I had no idea.
I had emailed him in April about my father’s passing. He replied how sorry he was for our loss. Said my father was a great guy. He had met my Dad on two different occasions and they enjoyed chatting about golf and other things.
He also said he was sorry for the delay in responding since he had been in the hospital for a week.
He wrote, “But I am okay now.”
I responded with an email including a “Hope it was nothing serious.”
That last time was the end of May and the next month he was gone.
My eyes kept tearing up all evening. It was the shock of it. And the loss of a truly wonderful person.
It’s telling that I had at least four postings about him in the past. Which I will soon share.
He was brilliant and an inventor. We wouldn’t be sitting here on our computers now if it wasn’t for the likes of him. A pioneer in Silicon Valley. And yet he was one of the most down to earth fellows you would ever want to meet. He was kind, generous and humorous.
He set the stage and paved the way for all of the Scottish folks I would meet in my travels. I would have to immediately like them if they were like Jim, right?
But he raised the bar for them. And for everyone else.
Rest in peace, my friend. We will miss you.
Jim McDiarmid
1940-2015
Just Being Mary 