See You Soon

I spent a few years avoiding Murray. I’d answer his calls occasionally, usually after he had left me three or four messages to call him back. But I didn’t have time to listen to him ramble on and on, even though his ramblings were mostly quite entertaining. I was trying to spend time with my daughter during the few hours she was awake while I was home from work, so when he called I mostly just wanted to get off the phone.

But my feelings changed instantly when I read that he was dying. It was decided I’d be his primary caretaker since I lived closest while Murray still lived in the house he had bought with his fiancée Cheryl before she died of liver failure in August. Murray got his diagnosis about a week after Cheryl died when he finally went to the doctor to complain about his swollen left foot, which at first he had assumed was caused by using the clutch on his work truck so much. But since he’d been off work for a couple months taking care of Cheryl as she was dying, the only other explanation he could think of was that it got swollen from all the walking he was doing during his hospital visits with Cheryl. But when the swelling still didn’t go down the week after Cheryl had died, he gave up his guessing and went to the doctor.

Walt emailed us, “Disturbing news from Murray. He is swelling up and turning yellow. Early tests from the hospital say his liver is failing. Big surprise right! Anyway, they say he'd be a candidate for a transplant, but not if he would continue the behavior that ruined the old one. He says more tests will provide more info on options and expectations. In the meantime he needs to get his affairs in order and asked me to help with that. More info as I get it, but feel free to communicate with him yourselves in the meantime. Love to all, W.”

I called Murray. We spoke briefly. He told me what Walt had said in the email. I asked him if they had any idea how much time he had left.

“One month.”

I had to leave. I said, “See you soon.”