When you’re a kid there comes a point in your life when you get around to calling someone your best friend. I’m not sure how this thing is decided or what the points system is but eventually it somehow happens.
In my life I had my first ‘best friend’ when I was 7 and I’d probably still be friends with him to this day, but life is a fickle mistress and not everyone is as loyal as I am. That’s a story for another day because what I want to talk about today is when you think or have been told someone is dead only to find out later they are more than alive and well.
This is what happened years later when I heard my childhood best friend had died. It was actually a family member that told me about this so I had no reason to question it. Even though I hadn’t spoken to him for years I found it all absolutely gut-wrenching.
Fast forward around a year or so, I bumped into his brother in a supermarket and the conversation went a bit like this:
Me: “I’m really sorry to hear about your brother?”
Him: “My brother?”
Me: “You know. What happened…”
Him: “What happened? He’s fine”
Me: “You mean he’s still alive? Someone said….well… it doesn’t matter. So he’s okay then? How’s he doing?”
Him: “Yeah, he’s okay. He’s got new choppers”
Me: “New choppers? He’s got new teeth?”
Him: “Yeah, he’s got a full set”.
I could not get my hat off. All of that and the only thing that had died was his teeth. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy to hear he was still alive but who starts these bullsh*t rumours.
It happens with celebrities too. There’s this legend of a bodybuilder called Albert Beckles. When I was a kid going on a coach to Yugoslavia I read all about him in a Muscle & Fitness magazine and I was always happy to know he was still alive.
Periodically I checked to see if he was still going and he always was. Until he wasn’t…
Albert Beckles had ripped off the mortal coil it would seem. 92 it said – not a bad innings.
Earlier today I was browsing the net and I read something else that suggested he was alive and well, so now I don’t know what to think.
I stopped digging any deeper because that was enough for me to mentally resurrect Albert Beckles and unless anyone tells me otherwise he’s going to keep going now until he’s 100. I’m not going to look him up again because the world seems like a better place with Albert, that’s what I say.
Here’s that best friend I was talking about when I was 7…
For some reason it feels appropriate for me to sign this blog post off with Fairground by Simply Red. My grandmother always loved this song and so did I. Knowing she liked it so much makes me even fonder of it than I already was…