Met an old classmate I haven’t seen for 10 months for lunch today. The shocker came when I asked him how come he lost so much weight & he told me that he was diagnosed with nose cancer (which spread to his lymph nodes) about 10 months ago, a day before his daughter was born. I asked him why he didn’t share about it earlier & he merely shrugged.
The cancer was between stage 2 & 3 and he underwent both radiotherapy as well as chemo for it. The treatments have been completed & he is due for a full body check soon.
The rest of the lunch went on as per normal & we chatted as though nothing that serious had happened. I’m definitely glad that he should be on the road to recovery / remission & being fit, has coped well with the treatments. I still feel a sense of sadness though, that I wasn’t there when he needed me most. I didn’t contact him in the last 10 months (we work in the same office building – good grief!) as he used to always work extremely late as an investment banker. I also knew that his wife was pregnant & thus I thought he didn’t contact cos he was too busy as a new father.
It’s just sad to think than an old friend I’ve known for 18 years had to go through such a dark period in his life.
We ended lunch with an agreement that we must lunch together once a month. I’m setting a reminder on my phone. This is a friend I truly cherish.
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