We lost Sheri at 12:20 am, Tuesday, August 28th, 2012.

Bernadette and I were with her on Saturday, my birthday, and Sheri was comfortable and serene. She commented that I’d lost weight. I have and so I showed her; walking away from her bed and turning around. “Wow,” she said, almost just mouthing the word.

I came back to her side and trying to be as cheerful as I could told her that I was getting a lot of looks from the young ladies. She muttered something unintelligible.

So I got real close, put my ear just inches away from her lips, and bathed in her pretense of disgust with me; the reality check that was the basis of our friendship, one last time.

“You’re not getting any looks from young ladies.”

And that was the last thing she ever said to me. One last dose of reality.

Sheri knew…