Posted on 08/10/2017 3:01:25 PM PDT by wardaddy
My best friend since since summer pads training August 1971 at Jackson Prep in Jackson Mississippi died at Driftwood nursing hospice in Long Beach Mississippi on the gulf coast last week.
He'd been in hospice first in Jackson then down there since February and his 6 foot 3 frame had wasted from 180 down to 103 after complications from diabetes and heart failure and pancreatic failure and a fungal cyst in his lungs which was inoperable and of course horrific neuropathy all brought on by alcohol abuse which he'd quit too late a few years ago at age 55
His sister a devoted catholic gal from Pass Christian and I and my family was about all he had or wanted these last months
I'd made the trek from middle Tenneseee ever 2-3 weeks these past six months and it's the best thing I ever did in my life
I wouldn't trade it for anything even though it was often painful to witness his aplomb and bravery in the face of a hard death was inspiring to me and my sons and daughters
He and I had braved many a war zone and dangerous environs through truly serious life threatening cisrcumstance from Sierra Leone to Colombia to Nicaragua to Zaire to Nicaragua and Honduras and El Salvador and Amazonia
He never flinched even when so called professionals ran or broke weak
And he could handle wet work though he tempered my anger gratefully which saved us the consequence that would have wrought
But he loved drink same as all the men in every generation of his paternal line since the Reconstruction
We had parted ways 15 years ago given his lack of appreciation for my newfound domesticated bliss with Wifey
Kind of went off the deep end
But when his sister let me know it was bad I reentered his life and in some ways our friendship became even more really
And he loved my children and vice versa
They had always had heard of him and then got to know him
When I first went to the facility all the nurses and orderlies asked me if he was just making stuff up about his life of exploits and I informed them hell yes he'd did those things and then some....
It took him a while and he faded slowly
Smoked like a chimney..When he could ....Reds naturally
I'd light them for him ....I quit in 1990
His record was 23 end to end ....crazy to any smoker
His last breath was drawn on a Marlboro Red which is just about how I woulda figured it
I think the lung thing got him...
He was a very very good looking young man..similar to Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohicans
Women threw themselves at him all his life but like most alcoholics the love of his life was booze
He did quit eventually all on his own cold turkey and almost died but he eschewed rehab
He did believe in twelve steps though
I've got two stories that describe his crazy fearlessness
Poets bar Jackson Miss in 1985 he spies this lovely blonde who's alas with her husband
He pinches her butt anyhow and grins under the influence
He and hubster take it outside and damn if hubster doesn't take his Bmw 528 and drive into him and EC bounces up and over the hood onto the pavement .....hubster wheels around to now run him slap over
EC is of course defiant holding his ground already beat up with road rash etc. and fortunately some bystanders got him out of he way at last moment
Guy was from the delta and unknown ...he skated
Another time I'm looking for him late at night at the reservoir clubs which stayed open till dawn
I finally reach the edgwater club and I see a crowd circle in the gravel lot
Well we all know what that means I knew I'd found him
There he was same sort of jealous husband conflict and he's beat down bloodied and torn at 2am and folks see me and figure i can get him to listen
His first words are a command to stay away Charlie i got this as he's pulling himself up from the dirt....lol..
His opponent a Jack Lambert lookalike is begging me to please get him outta there....but he wouldn't listen
Fortunately I had my Arkansas cotton farmers daughter girlfriend with me and he adored her
She's out there in her short short cutoffs and tube top and dr scholls wooden clickety clack sandals (the era) begging him to please leave with us
He did finally to the emergency room for stictches and wound cleansing
He was crazy but just brave as hell...
Never whined or feared death....
His sister and I found him almost dead two weeks ago and we both started crying over his bed and damn if he didn't wake up and scold us for being crying assed pu$$ies and he was ready to go smoke..lol
You should have seen me trying to testify to him about salvation at his sisters insistence...i did my best......I ain't no parson
He finally gave in to what he knew was right in his heart and how he'd been reared
And I'm sure glad he did
junior high school and high school and ole miss and a life of adventure together
A helluva ride
Edwin I salute you
Flawed like me but so much braver
Godspeed
I am so sorry for your best friend’s passing. After reading your beautiful memories I was alternately laughing & crying. So happy that he had you at the end. I know you were a rock for his sister too.
Edwin lived a LIFE.......not everyone can say that. Be well, there are lots of rocks here for you.
To: Eagles Field
So heroes get carte blanche? Is that your position?
You have a way of reading my thoughts do you? Apparently you can’t read my writing.
What I said and I thought it pretty plain, is that heroes are often flawed people and they do heroic things because of those flaws.
Did I say that he should get a pass when he acted a jerk? No.
Does his occasionally being a jerk make him any less a hero? No.
No one is perfect accept the All Mighty. So we all have to learn to accept each other warts and all.
Then we have to learn to rejoice in greatness in those of us who go above and beyond their flaws to achieve great things.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your words are your thoughts and I interpreted them precisely. If you want to backtrack and ignore the obvious, it makes no difference to me. I can except warts but not given to me under the guise of heroism. If you want to accept blindly this sort grabbing your wife’s ass that’s not my problem, it’s hers. Along with your cowardice. If he grabs my wife’s ass, that’s his problem, like none he’s ever seen. Guarandamnteed past heroics won’t help him then.
Get off the thread & go far, far away.
Insults
The last resort of a spent argument or a feeble mind.
Go away and bother me no more.
You are correct. Every hero in the Old Testament was flawed, but God put him in the right place at the right time and used that flaw to glorify Himself (God) and to teach us about Himself.
As a 54 year-old woman, I would have to say that at this point in my life, I wouldn’t mind some male attention like that. It depends; is it being done gently, with a smile, and not aggressive? That is different.
No, it is not very gentlemanly, but it can be funny and fun, all depending on the context. :) And once you get to know a person, things become different. A guy who has served and paid the price gets points for just that. :)
Just think of a Marilyn Monroe movie. I can easily imagine her swatting the man’s hand off of her rear, all the while enjoying the attention. :)
I got a brother kind of like that. Prayers.
Why don't you FOAD with your high horse BS on a FReeper memorial thread for his old friend? Asswipe.
I lamented the day Wayne was killed
102.9 the Rock and ZZQ were both at the right place and time and fortuitous for little Jackson
I still recall Sergio
Perez
The Adcocks
Kudzu the underground rag
My era
I heard Drake Elder died too in 2015
Lord I hate being old
Great tribute to your friend, wardaddy.
Very well recognized
The self destructive nature of both
Like Townes Edwin was native Texan
Son of a pilot stationed at Moore near McAllen
Thanks as you well know I don’t post much right now I’m just too busy but I felt like this and folks here minus one have been very kind
Thanks again
De mortuis nihil nisi bonum
There’s a time and a place for everything. And now’s not the time.
What an absolutely wonderful story. You keep him alive when you make other people see him. An honor to read your beautifully written piece.
Well I thank you for finding the time to share Edwin’s memory with us. His personality really comes across in those stories. You’re not a half bad writer when you’re not plinking out a quick post on that iPhone. It’s good to see how many were moved by your tribute.
And if Hollywood ever gets hold of your adventures with Edwin you’ll be a millionaire several times over assuming the statute of limitations has run out.
What an amazing thread here....I felt I should say something..somewhere
Given his fall and decline he’d lost his circle of folks....his sister really saved him the last decade plus
Her and her doc Hubbie helped him beyond calculation
I was late to all of the illness stuff and the worst of the addictions
She stood by him after frankly he’d been tuff on her at times
His other family disowned him over family biz squabbles and his bad habits
But she did not..to her everlasting credit
She’s a credit to southern women if ever there was one
And as pretty as he was once handsome....
Thank u dear
Ironically.....I was just in Los Angeles ..flirting with just that....a slight shot at it.
It’s a town of a lot of talk
His sister and I believe he was saved..he was angry with God
I told him Edwin we have free will and self determination in our bad habits
It’s not Gods doing
He got mad but after a minute said....”you’re right dammit ...I know that”
I never liked hooch...thank the lord
Most things I like I indulge in
Ice cream and gals
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