When Des wrote me this past summer and told me of his illness, I wrote back and told him "I presume you have long since detached yourself from Holy Mother Church, but I burned a candle for you anyway yesterday on my way to work." His reply was characteristic: "Thanks for the touching gesture. I assume you made sure the candle was appropriately burned at both ends before igniting it. Light a couple more for chris hitchens and michael douglas, fellow reprobates who are similarly afflicted in the throat."
What a lovely reply, and sadly appro. now that Hitchens is gone. As I get older, I only wish I had written more, and maybe leave a little bit more of me behind.
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