An Irish wake

Dahey's boss was also named Dahey. He had a lot of similarities, besides his heritage: the same number of siblings, they were from the same state, and they both lived in the same town for a while. Off and on, my Dahey worked with Boss Dahey since 2000.

However, on this beautiful day, we loaded Bubba up in the family truckster and we traveled about an hour from our home in RehabLand up the river to celebrate Boss Dahey's life at an Irish wake. His family rented a big hall, they had lots of food, and Boss Dahey was there: in a Chicago White Sox urn.

Boss Dahey lost his life at 52 recently because he had a hard head and procrastinated. His doctor told him he didn't like a mole he showed him in May and that he should see a specialist. Boss Dahey figured he'd do it later, but later never came. Boss Dahey was tough.

Right before the holidays, Boss Dahey had a seizure, which he had never done before. He was checked up, then sent home until he could see a specialist the next week. On the weekend, he had another seizure at home and he coded. His girlfriend saved him. This time, he didn't get to go home. He got stabilized, they ran tests, and then they told him. Boss Dahey had a brain tumor.

My Dahey called me from work when he had the first seizure. I knew it was probably something unusual. When he called me up at work, to tell me the boss had a brain tumor, I told him and his friends, they'd just have to wait until the workup was done. There are lots of brain tumors.

It turns out Boss Dahey's brain tumors were mets. From the nasty mole he procrastinated on. Boss Dahey had metastatic melanoma. When my Dahey  told me what the stage was (he always asks), I knew it was not good. He was Stage 4. Needless to say, this scared a lot of Dahey's coworkers.

Boss Dahey showed up a couple of times at work after he was diagnosed, but after two days, he went home. He was accepted into an NIH trial at World Renown Hospital.  His prognosis was six months. Boss Dahey made it to seven.

As terrible as everything was,  a lot of good came out of Boss Dahey's short time. He reunited with his family. He married his girlfriend. His friend from North Dakota came and visited him every time he could during that time (which was about four times). He settled his affairs and arranged this party we attended. The management at Dahey's work is being more flexible about letting staff leave early or take time off for medical appointments. They never realized that the macho attitude Boss Dahey exhibited made people afraid to take time off until the staff told them.

Boss Dahey bought Jameson whisky which he wanted used in a toast to celebrate everyone being together.  We raised our glasses in a toast to Boss Dahey. As we left the gathering, I thought of this Irish blessing:

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in
the hollow of His hand.

We left into the sunshine of a beautiful day, and the soft rain came just as we were rolling up to our house.

RIP Boss Dahey. Until we meet again...