What do you think?

A Tribute to a Friend
by Ed Welch

“Nothing has changed.”

I wasn’t so sure. It seemed to me that everything had changed. With four words – “your cancer is malignant” – his parents would lose their oldest son, his wife would become a widow, his four children, way too young to lose a father, would, indeed, lose their father, and what about me? Not that it’s all about me, but I would lose a dear friend in just a little more than a year. The cancer was inoperable and there were no viable treatments. But those were his first words to me. He said them about twenty-five minutes after he was given his diagnosis and prognosis. “Nothing has changed.”


This is what he meant. The hour before he was given his dire and accurate prognosis, he was certain...[more]