The sun had set on another relatively uneventful day for Amos. Amos was settling into count recovery stage of the first round of chemotherapy. He was suffering from some mouth sores as a result of what I am calling the "chemo hangover". The sores had just started healing up some. We had hope that it also meant that his counts of red and white blood cells as well as other indicators were beginning to turn as well. Christine and I were feeling optimistic, and as we laid down to watch a movie a nurse peeked in the room to inform us that there was a package for us at the front lobby desk. I was a bit confused as it was midnight, but I obliged and walked down to retrieve the package. I approached the man at the desk and when I inquired about the package he replied that he had no idea what I was talking about. Just before I started to get irritated another man approached me from my left and asked for a phone charger.
^To my obvious surprise, I was speechless at the sight of one of my oldest lifelong friends, Ryan Schmaling, standing before me awaiting a reaction. I grabbed on for a big hug and still had no words for him. I was simply confused and trying to get around to asking him how the hell he'd done this. Ryan insisted he was famished and needed a drink. As he approached a cooler of drinks I was trying to inform him that this drink stand was closed when a man seated at a table reading a newspaper proclaimed, "I think it only takes dollars." I turned to him and was taken back to notice another of my oldest friends, Babak "Ray" Yousefian. At that point they both had just gotten me really good. I was more just spinning then talking. I led them to the elevator still attempting to put together the proper questioning, when a third man nearly took out an unsuspecting women to ask us to hold the elevator. Bryan Tournas dashed passed the woman and ran onto the elevator. As the door closed I found myself surrounded by the friends I have known for most of my life. Growing up in Lily Lake, Wisconsin I was blessed with some of the best friends a boy could ever hope for. These three, including my oldest friend since diapers, Adam Mather, where those friends. Now three of them were laughing at me in the elevator about how good they just got me.
^So, naturally we decided the best thing to do was probably to get a bunch of booze and talk it out all night long. At one point I stepped outside and realized the sun was coming up. Ryan and I decided that was probably a good sign we should get an hour or two of sleep, but Ray and Bryan opted to help see my mother-in-law off to work that morning.
^Ray catching what would best be described as a morning nap for about an hour fully clothed under a newspaper hobo blanket. I thought it was good that he at least managed to get out of his shoes. It appears he didn't make it beyond the editorial section before he succumbed to the bottle of whiskey he and Bryan shared.
^In usual fashion I woke them all up, filled up our hangover bellies with breakfast, and hiked there asses up a mountain. We spent the afternoon in my favorite settings amongst the high alpine of the Wasatch. We hiked up to Mt. Ogden at 9,600 feet above sea level. For these low landers with hangovers it was a rather unique feat. Of course, they all still retain a relatively high amount of athleticism from our childhoods that were awash in competitiveness and sport. I equate a lot of my own athletic gifts that I capitalized on in a pro skiing career to these guys along with my big brother. You see we all grew up together with a group of our older brother's and their friends in Lily Lake. To the point that there was always a game of some kind going between the "big" guys and the "little" guys. The "big" guys used and abused us our entire childhoods, which resulted in the making of some of the most talented athletes our little grade school had seen. My brothers class was really good at sports, and those older boys turned us younger boys into phenoms. This group of older and younger boys has proved to be one of the great blessings of my life. My big brother and his friends became mentors to all of us younger boys throughout life long beyond the elementary school sporting fields. They taught us about sports, then girls, and then life.
^Much like this arduous climb Ray and Ryan are conquering this group of friends have climbed the peaks and walked the valleys of life together. As I left home for college all those years ago I realized that very few people are blessed with friends like these. People I would meet abroad would talk about friends they had in grade school that they never saw anymore and such. I began to realize that this group of men who stood up in my wedding next to my blood brother, Tyler, that I have come to call the "starting five" was a blessing most do not have. We grew up together. We won and lost championships together. We chased girls together. The high school system split us up and sent us to different high schools that just ended up in a group of guys who brought two rival high schools together in even larger pools of friendships. We carried coffins and buried some of those friends together. As we ascended Mt. Ogden I choked back reflective tears at the thoughts of all the peaks and valleys of life we had walked together and the memorial tattoos we share.
^Bryan ascends to the towers that capitalize the peak, and I stood back to capture the memory in a picture admiring that we were gaining another peak together now. Despite my current state living in the valley of the shadows of doubt and fear of cancer, these guys came to my side and took me to another peak. The literalness fed the metaphor.
^Four of the "starting five". We were missing Adam, but he was with us all the way and in every story we lovingly recalled. My wife was paramount in making this happen because she had felt my hurt in missing Ray's recent wedding. She was in on the whole plan and I won't soon be able to return the favor.
^Descending the peak I put the fellas through the ringer. We made the mistake of allowing Bryan to decide whether or not to take the short cut through the rock scramble. Bryan is famously up for anything, especially anything challenging. Of course though, we all obliged his challenge and hopped and skipped our way across the large field of boulders and gaps to the eventual demise of our legs.
^Taking in one of the views and it did not fall lightly upon me what was happening. Four of my greatest friends, the kind most folks will never know, showed up in my darkest hour and took me to a peak. One of literal and metaphorical significance. One I felt in my heart as well as my legs. My blood brother, Tyler, has always been a rock upon which I have grown including the older boys of our childhood like Adam's older brother, Graham, Bryan's older brother, Chris, and their friends in the posse of Lily Lake boys, Jay, Mike, Justin, Roger, and the rest who shared in forming our lives. Now these guys, Ryan, Bryan, Ray, and Adam are brothers to me as well. This group of older and younger boys who grew up in Lily Lake are all brothers to me now. Small towns have gifts that city folks will never know. The kinds of relationships that last an entire lifetime of trials, tribulations, and joys.
^Amos met the guys he will call Uncle and he was so fired up. He was all smiles just like his dad. He will call them Uncle along side the his blood Uncles Tyler and AJ that he knows well by now. He will grow up confused at why he has so many Uncles and cousins just like I did. Where we come from we go by a saying that Tyler coined a few years ago, "families of friends, and friends like family". I have a plethora of "uncles" that were the life long small town friends of my parents, and now Amos will receive the same gift. It is a glorious one.
^Ryan and Bryan jumped back in the car to the Arizona desert and I dropped Ray off at the airport just before my night shift. As I sat in the bin of the airplane during my shift at sunset I couldn't help but reflect on it. The "starting five" and how blessed I am to have them. My big brother and the lives that he and the older guys in Lily Lake helped in shaping us, and the shear gratitude I will always have for each and every one of them. I am so grateful that these three were able to come to my side in the valley of the shadows of doubt and fear and take me to a peak. We have walked so many peaks and valleys together that this one helped show me yet again that we will indeed get through this valley to many more peaks and valleys throughout our lives as lifelong friends, brothers, and now uncles. Myself, and now Amos are so lucky to have all of them.
