A Day to Remember

As I write this on the afternoon of the 10th of March, it is after learning this morning that my bud Roy Gross died at 11:30 last night.
Roy was fighting multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, for close to a year and his body said enough was enough. When his liver started to fail, it was just a matter of time before his entire body shut down. He was not in pain when he passed.
Roy and I have been friends since about 1986 and he joined our ski group for the first time in 1988 on a trip to Lake Tahoe. He wasn't sure if he and wife Pam would fit in so he decided to rent a condo on the lake while the three other families rented a five bedroom house down the street from the lifts. Not only did they fit in, they joined us on ski trips for the next half dozen years, even after they moved from Miami to Idaho.
It was their call around thanksgiving of 1988 that asked Bobbie and myself if we wanted to join them on a trip to Innsbruck, Austria at Christmas time. We had never been to Europe and we jumped at the opportunity.
From there, the four of us travelled often together.
Roy was a great friend and always complimented me on working hard on whatever business venture I was involved in. His passing leaves a huge void not only in my life but in the lives of those he was always around.