FRIENDS

OK. The Primary purpose of this club is to support and promote our paddling activities, or in Bob’s case, poling.

We are banded together to be there to help with shuttles, launches, and takeouts, and all the other situations that go along with our chosen paddle sport. And Hale-and-Well-Met, it is.

But we are also friends, that greatest of resources, and I hope we can call on each other for help with all the situations that go along with our greater journeys – the launches, the shuttles, the daily living routines and situations that would be better and easier when a friend is along.

Several incidents recently brought out that I hope we can turn to other club members for help and support as friends for that journey, too.

Today I heard that a man died after being found where he had fallen between his bed and the wall in the motor home he lived in by himself, and was wedged there for several days before a neighbor found him.

Last week I went to the local grocery store to find they had a large corner of the store blocked off with police tape because an elderly gentleman had come in to the store by himself and gone over to the pharmacy area, sat down and died. Alone. And it was an hour or so before anyone discovered he wasn’t just napping.

As a club, we have several members (and past members, too) in hospital, or living by themselves, or in care facilities and I want to make a statement that I think any member of the club would be willing to step up and help in any way they can, if they knew what help was needed.

Also, knowing how hard it is for some people to ask for help, if you know of someone in a situation that might need help or support, just drop by out-of-the-blue and offer. Because that’s what friends do.

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The author, Harmon Everett