Pat

A guy I knew named Pat passed away last week. He wasn't so much my friend as a friend of a friend, but I went fishing with him two weeks ago.

I met him and three other people on Lake Granby a few Mondays ago. He brought his 8 month old son with him. The six of us went out on the lake all morning. He had to leave the group early in order to take care of his son, so he didn't stay with us for the afternoon.

I saw Pat again the following Thursday at the open mic that I run at the Crooked Creek. I was going to go up and say hello to him, since I'd just gone fishing with him a few days before. I got distracted with music and other things and never got a chance to say hello to him. I'll never have another chance to say hello to him.

On the day we went fishing, I remember that we had a strange conversation about death before we got on the boat. Somehow we started talking about how the brain can still function without the body. I remember that Pat said something about how if you drown in freezing cold waters, the cold water will preserve your brain function for 15 minutes, so you'll be conscious of what's happening. Then, I think I said something morbid about a guillotine and being able to see your decapitated body for a few seconds. Then my friend John started talking about what happens the instant before someone dies. He said that he thought of consciousness as a little ball of light that bounces around your head. He said that right before you die, that ball of light bounces around your brain really quickly for what feels to you like eternity, and that was the afterlife. It was a random conversation, and I probably never would have thought about it again if Pat hadn't died last week.

Pat grew up in Wisconsin. He worked at Silver Creek in their computer and IT department. He had a wife and an 8-month old son. The day before he died, he left his softball team's game early because he didn't feel well. He died at home in the morning from a heart attack. He was 34.