The Parting Words of a Mentor and Friend: Why Do I Have to Leave?

There is a hollow place inside me as I write this latest essay — a feeling created by the passing of a mentor and friend who died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 97 years.

Pause right there.

You ask, “How can you not have been prepared for this news? How does someone who is 97 years old die suddenly?”

The answer lies in knowing the person. Despite the physical impairments of aging, and while his mental capacities had slowed a bit, he was not wanton to admit to…