A FRIEND IN NEED

Larry Vindischman continues to bravely battle his cancer.

I try to call him on a weekly basis to see how he’s managing. Although living by himself in a Windsor condo, Larry has the support of long time teaching friend Peter Cromien and his wife who live right across the hall. Incredible how old geographers tend to stick together despite getting lost whenever they go out on a road trip.

Larry felt well enough last weekend to try his luck at the casino for a few hours and boasted about winning $150 at the black jack table in about ten minutes. Somehow, he forgot to tell me what happened in the remaining one hour and fifty minutes.

On Wednesday however, he had the harrowing experience of suddenly feeling extremely cold while watching his temperature soar from 98.6F to 104F. This experience, which is not new for Larry, has landed him in hospital on more than one occasion in the past few months.

With his good friend Peter out of town for a few days, Larry decided to forgo the 911 call in favour of taking three Tylenol.

“My bags are packed. I’m ready to check out anytime. My doctor gave me two years to live 23 months ago so it looks like I’m right on track,” he joked.

“Larry, I don’t want to read about you in the obits anytime soon. If anything, give me a call if you get in trouble,” I suggested.

“Mike, none of us will live forever,” he answered soberly. “And hey, how are you doing?”

No matter how dire his situation, Larry always takes the time to ask about my condition.

When I last wrote about Larry in December, he was inundated with e-mails from former teaching colleagues and students.

His initial reaction to all the attention he received was one of shock and disbelief.

“Mike, what the hell did you do?”

I didn’t let one that I had blogged about his condition.

“Just talked to a few old friends about you, that’s all,” I answered innocently.

“Well, you’ve really put me in a jam. I’ve only had my laptop for a few days and now I’m being flooded with e-mails. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank everyone properly. It takes me twenty minutes to write a short message on this thing. The cursor thing keeps jumping around all the time.”

I could only smile to hear him fretting about his ‘dilemma’.

A day later, Larry called to apologize for his ranting and to say how touched he was by the outpouring of support he had received.

“Man, I can’t believe some of the e-mails I’m getting. It’s been great. I’ve just bought an external keyboard for my laptop so I should be able to write some proper thank yous now. Mike, you have no idea what this means to me.”

I know exactly what it means, I thought to myself.

Larry recently has undergone an extensive battery of tests to determine the future course of his treatment. His white blood cell count continues to be too low to resume his chemo regime.

He’ll get his results on February 19. In the interim, I know he would appreciate your prayers and support.

If you get a chance to drop him a note, here’s his e-mail address: jlv1@bell.net

And if you’d like to call him or visit him in the Windsor area, please contact me for further information.

Thanks for your help.