Death of an old roommate

[fbhjr]

I heard today that yesterday one of my roommates from 40 years ago died.

There was a time I considered him a friend. But, that was fairly long ago.
And, in that time some bad things he did came to light.
https://fbhjr.dreamwidth.org/754825.html or https://fbhjr.livejournal.com/756851.html

But, he was always an asshole.
And got more so as he go older, until we lost touch. We were friends on Facebook, but that was about it. I haven’t seen him in person in more than 20 years.

When he was around 40, his father came to visit him. He found him living in a run down place with no food, bills overdue, his blood sugar out of control, infections that needed treatment, no job and no signs of looking for one.
"You can’t take care of yourself, come home and live with me," his father said.
"Wow, factory recall," I said.

This was after his father had given him $250,000 when he had sold his company saying he was giving his kids their share of their inheritance while he was still alive and could see them use it.
My roommate had spent it on a cult then gotten kicked out when his money was gone.

I don’t think I saw him in person after his dad called him back to Maine.
And, I didn’t feel a loss from that.

But, there was a time he was one of my best friends. We hung around together a lot.
There was a time when he couldn’t find a boyfriend and I couldn’t find a girlfriend, so we would hang out together and grouse about that.

He is the person who talked me out of dating the girl I was seeing before my wife. The one we now call "Attila the Hun". (Neither my wife, me or this old roommate came up with that name…)
It was not a good relationship. And, I needed someone to make me understand that. He did.

So, I’m sad at the passing of that person who was my friend 40+ years ago.
Not the person who died yesterday.