All Mixed Up

There once was a man who was a friend of my dad's. We'll call him "Mr. B". They worked at the same company for many years. He was much more than just a friend of my dad's, though. I'll explain.

He had a son named who we will call "R". "R" is a year or two older than I am. We used to play together as kids at company outings, or when our families would get together. We also were in boy scouts together. "Mr. B" was active in the troop as an adult leader. He was a kind and (usually) patient teacher who cared about us kids and taught us plenty on scouting trips and camp-outs. Personally, I learned a lot from him.

He also had a daughter who we will call "D". "D" is a year or two younger than me. We were also close. We also used to hang out a lot at company outings. When I got older, I remember that "D" was the first girl I ever had "feelings" for. She was my first school-aged crush, I guess you could say. I would ride my bike over to their house. I said I was going to hang out with "R", but really, I was going there more to spend time with "D". I can't recall if the crush was reciprocal or not, and at this point, it doesn't really matter. We remained friends even after this whole "school-aged crush" thing turned out to be nothing more than that.

Over the years, however, I drifted apart from "R" & "D". "R" & "D" were in a different school district than I was, and as we got older, we all started hanging out with different people. We never really stopped being friends, but rather just drifted apart and lost touch. That changed, though, this past week.

"Mr. B" died on Monday, January 1st. He was only in his early 60's. The visitation was on Friday, and the funeral was on Saturday. I was very happy to see "R" & "D" again. That joy, however, was mixed with extreme sorrow for the circumstances under which we were meeting. Emotionally, I have had a very confusing week.