Charley’s Last Words

Charley’s Last Words

 

My best friend through high school and college was Charley Widmer, also known as Chuck, Wids, Wink, Ditmer, Ditmus, Winkenstein, and about five hundred more monikers.  Sometime after college we lost touch.  We lost touch because I suck at maintaining friendships.

Through Facebook and email, I have managed to get back in touch with Chuck.  I missed out on a lot of his adult life. 

When last I left Wids, we were both smoking and drinking too much.  Ditmus took both to a greater extreme than myself.  He also quit both way before I did, which is probably why he lived past the age of forty which when he was twenty-five was one his loftiest goals.

Charley not only quit tobacco and the drink, he also became a complete health fanatic, which means he took up running.  Part of his new life, which I have missed because I suck at keeping in touch, was he had a major heart issue.

I learned of this issue in his response to my recent post on a failed cell phone situation.   For those who know him, his story can only be described as classic Widmer.

While running an eight mile leg of a one hundred mile relay, Ditmus suffered his heart issue.   He calls it an issue, not an attack, but the eventual result was he had his chest ripped open and lots of stuff poked, flushed and what-knotted to clear up what was about 80% blockage.

The cell phone part of the story comes when Charley felt his heart giving out.  He had a cell phone; he was also on the only part of the course that had no cell service.  He lay beside the road helpless and gasping for air.  Runners, heartless bastards that they can be, slowed down just enough to let Charley know they would alert emergency services when they reached the next station in the relay race.  No one stopped to try and offer any assistance until help arrived.

Here comes the part that if you knew Chuck, you would recognize it as classic Widmer.  One runner actually did stop, but only to offer typical runner encouragement.

“Come on, get up, you can do it!”

Charley says he was sure that his response was also going to be his last words,

“Fuck you!”

Then with a little more reflection he finishes the story with this gem.

“Come to think of it, they will still probably be my last words!”*



*Oh yeah, he's still running.