My best friend called me yesterday as I walking out of work and as I was fumbling with my bag to get to my phone I had this feeling it was not going to be good news. I was right. She called to tell me that her father had passed away. Although not altogether unexpected I do know that she was not ready for it. What child is ready for their parent to pass? Of course I tried to console her told her I’d come down and be with her the next day and then I thought about her father and how long I’d known his daughter.
We weren’t always best friends we grew up in the same town went to the same schools so we’ve known each other for about 22 yrs, we’ve been best friends for at least 15 so I’d say I know her pretty well. We’ve battled our weight together in the past going to the gym and working out, but this never works when you go out and eat afterwards. We’ve also done various weight loss programs together none of which really worked, but it was good to have a buddy.
Back to her father he was always a large man, but I wouldn’t say he was morbidly obese until way after high school. As we got older he developed a book full of severe health issues including prostate cancer and later stage IV lymphoma. Complications of this are eventually what caused his death but obesity contributed to many of his ailments.
Her mother would tell me all the time that he just won’t stop eating, that he brings a chair into the kitchen and sits in front of the refrigerator and picks out what he wants. I never believed her until one night my friend and her sister and myself were sitting in the kitchen and her dad came in and did exactly what her mother described and I was shocked.
Now that he’s gone, looking back I realized that yes her father had an issue with food as do many obese people. But unlike some who want to change her father seemed stuck in his habbits which ultimately led to difficulty in diagnosing and treating his cancer. His daughter still works on her own weight knowing that she does not want to end up like her father and as her friend I will continue to be her voice of encouragement and support as she is mine.
