My friend Laurie had trouble understanding the idea of a sometime brother--not having been raised in the chaos that was my young life...
So....my family was like this....
My father, the Captain, was almost always away, except when he slept on the couch in his shorts.
I didn't know him--so I didn't like him. He did not even know what flavor ice cream I liked
But Sol (Shya, Fagela, Solomon) Rodkin did.
In the early years, we went everywhere (Lollypop Farm, Sunset Play Land, Long Beach, Jones Beach, visiting Aunt Joannie and Aunt Helen in Queens...
All this is to say that I found out (on Facebook) that Larry had died on July 9th of this year, 2026.
I had gotten back in touch with Larry and Therese about 2-3? years ago. Therese and I have the exact same birthday--4/10/1947. She, Therese, had a friend just a little north of me (in Vermont) and for the longest time, were trying to get together somehow.
It never did work out. But we had a sort of relationship....
Rhetta, Larry and I were trying to figure out a plan for getting together in NYC. We talked about getting hotel rooms in NY and spending the time hanging out and reminiscing.
It kept getting put off...Rhet had to have some surgeries, recovered (pretty well!) and then we began to talk about visiting Larry--this time in Maryland, where he and Therese live...Larry had had cancer but was in remission--once he had gotten severe skin rashes (I am expert in that area because of my lifelong eczema) so I sent him 'stuff' to relieve the itchiness.
Time went by....and last week I went to facebook to check on our possible plans and saw Therese's page--she said something like....I don't know how I am going to live without him...
THEN I KNEW that Larry had died.
I tried to contact her using every phone number I had for them.
Everything was disconnected.
I thought that perhaps I had jumped to conclusions....but I did further research (a site called people look-up) and that is how I found out the date of his death which was July 9th 2026.
He was born on July 1st 1943 and died on July 9th 2026.
Perhaps I will write more about his life at some other time.
I used to love to dance with him. He was such a good dancer. We used to Cha-Cha, do the Lindsey and the Jersey Bounce! He became a heroin addict, eventually recovered and became a therapist who helped others. I loved him very much and will miss him as long as live.
