a true story for post 100

I'm not sure where this fits, as it's about a friendship born of our brotherhood...I love to tell it ,and as pipers ,I think you'll get it.

  Back in the mid nineties ,on another pipe forum {now long gone},I friended a wild Irish smoker i'll call Ray. He had asked for old pipes to be donated to the Vets in his home state, and I sent a older Pete that I had retired.

  A PM of thanks soon followed, and over the following months PM became calls ,then as a true friendship began, call, cards, and gifts became a weekly thing.

I learned that Ray, 61 at that time, had suffered a brain tumor at 45 that left him almost blind, and ,for the most part, a shut-in ...much later I learned ,from his wife, that our calls had been a blessing to him. He would call me every Sunday, and go on and on about football, fast cars, and even faster women, and I'd just let him roll...his wit and humor was a blessing to me also.

Over the next three years ,we exchanged pipes and tobacco as Ray gave me my intro to Rattray's Black, and Marlin Flake and Ashley's #44.

   As I was leaving for work one morning, in early 98, I got a call that fell over me like ice water, Ray had passed away ,in his sleep the night before.

  In the coming weeks I got to know his wife, kids and two brothers, one of whom was to honeymoon in Ireland,  where he would leave Ray's ashes to rest in the sea. SORRY- I forgot to tell you Ray was on the west coast, and I'm in Virginia.

   Some months after his passing the family sent me a large box ,with his favorite Pete ,a xl190 rustic, some tobacco, photos {I'd never seen his face} and most important, a little brass ern, with a part of his remains.

   Over the next few years I lost track of the family...time has a way of dragging us along. BUT this is all background...

Years later, on my 25th wedding anniversary ,the wife and I had come home from dinner, and I was checking ebay for a pipe I had on watch...the second heading I came across sed " Pierre Lamy plus ten"...I remarked to my wife that the only person I ever new with a lamy was Ray...a closer look and I found that the "ten" was a group of ten Peterson pipes with socks and boxes, and in the background I saw a Peterson pipe tree i'd given Ray for Christmas one year.

  "oh my God " I called to the wife " these pipes are Ray's"...at $450.00 buy now ,I had to have em, and my wife demanded to go in for half as gift for being such a swell guy for 25 years.

  NOW HERE'S THE BEST PART...

 this was on  a Thursday, and buy Monday I had sent an e-mail to Ray's baby girl ,telling her how happy I was to have her Dad's pipes and that I would take good care of them...

 on Wen. the postman dropped the box on my doorstep, I made it to the kitchen table with the box; tucked the tip of my pocket knife into the tape on the box, and at that exact moment the phone rang...the voice of Ray's youngest came through the phone "so you got daddy pipes", she sounded so happy, "YEP" ,is all I sed "how many?" she asked ...I cut the box open and began counting, and stopped " Don't you know?" I asked...

 "Herb, we sold those pipes two weeks ago ,at a yard-sale; I guess Daddy really wanted you to have them" we spoke a bit more ,about the cosmic event we shared in that moment...it's the last contact I've had with them.

Now, I know it was a long story ,but I hope you took the time to read it, and I wonder if you think friendship can build a bridge like that.

 Herb.