On August 19th I got a call telling me one of my dearest friends had passed away unexpectedly.
I met Rich my freshman year in high school and over the course of the next decade we went through so many highs and lows together, always there to help one another.
Some of my best memories include walking from my house to his house at night and than onward to Dunkin Donuts for a maple bar and chocolate milk. We must have done this hundreds of times and probably never said more than a few words as we made that way there and back. When we were older and one of us could drive we'd head to La Jolla and go surfing almost every morning before first period, being late more often than not lol
Rich got his drivers license first and because of that we had a life long debate as to who was the better driver (me) and used to compare our driving skills to those displayed in the movie "The Driver".
We played sports but almost never the same one or on the same team. Rich was an excellent baseball player and I was average at my best but the team needed players so I joined up so they could play. I was into football and made both JV and Varsity while Rich got cut every summer, but he kept coming out hoping one day he'd make it and we'd be on the same team. Rich ended up playing soccer and I ended up over time coaching soccer lol
His passing hurts more than it should as we drifted apart when I ended my first marriage and eventually made the decision to move to Canada, both things he was against as he felt I should stay and make a loveless marriage work because that is what real men do, when in reality my leaving left him with no options but to address his own feelings for the girl we'd both cared for in high school, me openly and him deep inside himself for fear of being that guy. I knew of his feelings but it was left unsaid between the three of us.
I was happy for him when I learned a year or so after I'd left that he'd gotten up the nerve to make the move and admit his feelings for that girl who was now a woman. They spent many happy years together and I begrudged them nothing as I was far happier in my life than I'd ever been.
Over the past few years I'd tried to reach out and talk to Rich but without any luck. I'm not sure to this day if my messages never reached him or if he passed on the opportunity to meet me halfway.
I'm sad for the loss his family is feeling, his two wonderful sons, two pretty cool younger brothers, and his parents.
They'll say he has gone onto a far better place and without the pain he'd been experiencing but if I know Rich he is cruising around in that old green Dodge Dart just waiting for the chance to remind me that he is the Driver!
Rest in peace my friend and know that despite the years and distance that have separated us you've always been with me and I'll be sharing some stories about some of our adventures this weekend with my kids.
Richard Alan Cimins April 27, 1962 to August 19, 2014
