Coffee with Rando

Mitch Albom wrote a beautiful book during the last days he had with Morrie. The Tuesday sessions they shared brought new meaning to Albom's life and to his millions of readers including myself.

There is a similarity in Albom's interaction with Morrie and my regular coffee breaks and "four-hour lunch" with Rando. The big difference is that Morrie's passing was expected while Rando's was not.

We neglect the value of a person when that person is someone we see everyday. We appreciate the goodness of the man but fail to live that goodness in ourselves. We always forget that the person we appreciated as a friend or a companion will leave us and never come back.

That was Rando to me, to us whose lives he touched. He was my mentor and my friend yet I failed to remember the lessons he passed on to me. I failed to show in my deeds his good examples. I failed to understand the lessons he taught me... but not until he left, for good.

At 45, Rando died while doing a very healthy thing - working out in a gym. According to witnesses, he collapsed. They gave him CPR and took him to the nearest hospital. Traffic was normal - HEAVY! He was declared DOA.

It was a shock to us when we learned about his death. We (another close friend and I) were waiting for him in that fateful Tuesday morning, 26 June 2007. Almost daily, from his workout at the Country Club, he would fetch us in our office to go back to the Country Club and have breakfast with him. There we would talk for hours about anything under the blue skies. But... he never came, he never called. We were only informed about his passing shortly before lunchbreak.

His way of life is something that should be followed. He may not be a saint but he is a very good man.

We will never forget Rando.

Note: Written 10 June 2008 at McDonald's El Pueblo while waiting for my food.