Letter of Tribute to my Friend

North Las Vegas NV

Description

I just discovered that an 80 year old friend of mine died last month without an obituary to mark his passing. This letter of Tribute is written in his memory. A reminder not to be too busy for the people we care about. Take the time to visit, talk, laugh, and write as the time passes, because suddenly the door of opportunity closes. Enjoy: .....I just discovered that a good friend of mine, Robert Edgar Leach, from North Las Vegas, NV died last month at the age of 80....no obituary.......he was a good friend....I was sick, low money, hiding from Mike on the streets, and he took me into his place ( a rickety old trailer by a BLM convenience store ) that was on a mound of dirt....we spent many hours playing chess, putting together jigsaw puzzles ( and having races to see who could put their puzzle together the fastest ), and talking for hours about all things important and mundane....not a love interest, but a very interesting man originally from St. Joseph, Missouri.....ex-military, ex-undercover, ex-so many, many things.....he wrote a book that he kept wrapped in brown paper and tied with string inside a box which was also tied shut.....he wouldn't let me read it....he said he wrote it just to to be able to say he could.....but I must tell you I bet it was a good book, one that you couldn't put down....that was my friend, Robert.....kept whiskey in the freezer.....he was a huge coffee drinker....one day I woke up and he was just a hollerin' and carryin' on.....you see I had washed his Mr. Coffee coffeemaker, including the pot....which was black as the ace of spades.....he said he had never, ever washed it.....from that day forward he complained that the coffee didn't taste good, any more....we laughed about it as time passed....now, all of these many years later I don't wash my pot, either.....and your Uncle Steve will sneak in and wash it, sometimes....Robert was right....cleanliness ruins the taste of the coffee....just not the same brew in translation.....well, that's my story for the night.....now my friend, Robert, can come here and share my life with me for awhile....I will be glad for the company....he cried when he took me to the bus station to come back to Colorado.....we both thought I would return there to live again, but, alas, all I was able to do was go there in 2006 to sleep on his couch, for awhile....to get away from Tom....I was so tired....I must've slept through 3 days w/o awakening....and he let me....that's a true friend......