ascanius

The Future Ms. Ascanius had a roommate when she was in rehab (of the physical therapy kind, not the drug kind) after the accident that left her a paraplegic. A truly lovely 40-something New Jersey Italian lady who suffered a high level spinal chord injury falling from a horse. We got to know this woman and her husband, Eddie, pretty well in the months we were there. I got an apartment near the place, so I was there all day every day, but Eddie lived about an hour away and worked in the City to boot. so he had plenty of driving to do, but he still came every night after work. This was a couple of years ago, and this lady has regained a lot of function. She can walk without braces and drive, even though she is a quadriplegic. Well, I found out today that Eddie just died due to a ruptured artery as a complication of leukemia. He's been sick for a couple of months. A couple of damned months. What can you really say to that? How can things go so wrong so quickly for one family, particularly such a truly good family? My reaction is not an emotional one, since I only knew Eddie in passing, but the cosmic injustice of it all sort of sticks in the craw. I've been called a pessimist, but pessimism is not without its up sides, so at a time like this let's just be glad that the things we suffer through, as bad as they are, could always be worse, and I'll be keeping Eddie and his wife and daughter in my heart.