The Grim Reaper

THE GRIM REAPER

Bill Bradbury was my very close friend from the early 1970’s when I met him in the New York Office of the FBI where we were Special Agents.  Bill was from Chicago and had the pleasant personality that many mid-westerners are blessed with.  I’m safe in saying that Bill Bradbury didn’t have an enemy in this world and I can also add, he probably never met anyone who didn’t like him.  Having said that, the thing that bonded our friendship was a dark humor streak that Bill had that only surfaced with people he knew really well.  I used to kid him and tell him if these people knew what you were thinking about they’d be amazed.  

Case in point.  When I retired in 1998 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.  I knew it was coming.  Over the course of time, my father and three brothers all had prostate cancer.  I also knew that I wasn’t going to fool around with any of the alternate treatment options available at that time and that I was going to have my prostate removed.  I had confidence in my doctor and that was his recommendation as well and we set a date for the operation. 

My good buddy Bill came to visit me before the operation and he bought a greeting card with him.  Honestly, what man brings a card with him when he comes to visit another man?  Bradbury did and here’s why.  The card he gave me had a picture of the Grim Reaper on the front.  It was ominous with the black hooded reaper and his staff staring glumly at you.  When you opened the card there was the reaper again staring at you with a finger waving you closer saying “THATS RIGHT, COME TO PAPA.”  

I laughed of course.  It was hilarious and fit his real humor to a tee.  I went in and had a successful operation and you might think that this is the end of my story.  It isn’t. Years later Bill had an operation to deal with and it weighed on him because he was a hypochondriac. I went to visit Bill several times before his operation but the last time I brought him a greeting card. My wife Linda found the perfect card.  She had actually come across the card earlier on but instinctively knew she had to buy it.  The front of the card was the picture of a rear view mirror in a car and in the mirror was none other than a menacing  Grim Reaper leering at you.  When you opened the card it read, CAUTION: IMAGES IN THE MIRROR MAY BE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK.  

Sadly, Bill passed away in 2014 and I never not think of him and smile.  He met the Grim Reaper, as we all will, and I’ll lay money on it, that the Reaper liked him.