A good man died yesterday...

A friend of mine, Derek... ...well, really a friend of a friend—someone I'd only met in person perhaps once, died yesterday, and I feel the sadness of it. He was only 41.

How do I know he was a good man, then, if I knew him so little? People I did know well—people who have been my friends for many years—knew him and they thought he was a good man. And I knew him through his many blog posts; most of which over the last few years dealt with his impending death from colorectal cancer. Even in the face of the knowledge that his cancer would kill him, he wrote with gentle humor and if he was angry and scared from time to time, he almost never let it show.

Just the other day, I was wondering why he hadn't posted for a little while, but now I understand. Still, it was only 6 days from his last post on April 27 until his death, and I hope that means that his ending was as peaceful as it could be.

I'm sad for the loss of him, I'm sad for my friends' loss, I'm sad for his family.