Thinking of my friend Jeff Middleton tonight. Met him at Eastern Jr. High School. He was always a leader in school. Very Popular, friendly and congenial. He had honest emotions and shared them with his friends.
We were roommates at UMASS Amherst. Amazing amount of memories that keep seeping out. He left to do community work in Springfield, then started his career at the GE in Lynn.
He was a groomsman in my wedding and I was one in his to his great wife, Kathy. Godfather to my first born, Ryan. Jeff had a grounded love of life with a great sense of humor and a serious reflective side. You could disagree with him and still very much respect his outlook and I knew he felt the same about others.
Like many friendships, we drifted our own ways and saw each other sparingly. Last saw him at Phil Freeman's Funeral and it was sad that such an occurrence had to happen to see him again.
About two weeks ago, Jeff was on my mind all morning as I was working on a construction job. Very weird.... in fact it creeped me out. So I called him during a break and left a VM telling him to call me as soon as he could. I was worried and not sure why. Jeff got back to me the next day and gave me shit for leaving such a voicemail. We had a great conversation for about 45 minutes.... covered a lot of ground and dug up a lot of great memories. It was like old times again.
I hung up satisfied that he was OK. But I guess he was not. Jeff dropped dead this morning in his kitchen of heart failure. His wife, Kathy witnessed the horror. My sincere condolences to Kathy, his daughters, Kryssi and Mari.... and his mother, brother and sister.
There is a sad void in the world of Jeff's family and friends tonight. Rest in Peace Jeff. You will be missed.
