Got a call from Tim Fung yesterday. He was a friend of a friend, just doing that “I wonder how Gloria’s been these past 40 years”. But what I found out from him is that an old friend, Gene Kunitomi, had died about 2 ½ years ago…. Stunned.

We were friends back in the ‘60’s and early ‘70’s, and in the ‘80’s Gino (as we called him) had a dream to cure cancer. He was sure that he could do it. Working as a lab tech at U.C. Berkeley, he was so excited about the things that were being discovered. He wanted to find the common thread so that all cancer could be defeated. Enthusiastic about Interferon and animated by being involved in the research, his passion and optimism were engaging. Gino died of cancer.

And that’s what happens, I guess, when we lose contact. We find out about the passage of people that we knew were “out there somewhere”.

A similar thing happened after Harry & I returned from traveling around the country for a year. I received a call from the daughter of my best friend from junior high school. Jeanie had died about a year-and-a-half before the call.

But wait! That can’t be true! How can Jeanie have died? I wanted to call her and check to see if her daughter was telling me the truth (and at the same time I knew that no one would call with information like that if it weren’t so).

Old friends. And how many more are out there waiting to pop out of existence like virtual particles creating a void in the force?

I can feel the void today.

If you are an old friend or family member, thanks for being part of my life. And if you’re a new friend, thanks to you, too!