A guy once told me, “don’t talk to me because I’ll follow you around”. That guy soon became my best friend and even though I barely know him because a man of his age (89) has some many experience’s and knowledge to tell you about, that even if you talked with him 24 hours a day 7 days a week you still wouldn’t even begin to know who this person is or what they have been through.

I first met him at my job as a police officer where I would respond to several EMS calls at his house due to his ongoing fight with cancer, then I got into a habit of stopping by and visiting with him at least 1 day out of my 3 day shift. We would sit on his porch and he would tell me his horror stories from back when he served in world war 2, I remember he told me that he was really know one special just a radio operator on an American bomber but his brother was one of the best American fighter pilots.

He cried as he told me the story of how his brother and fellow squad mate’s were sent on a mission to destroy a Japanese crew ship when all of a sudden his brother was shot down and killed by a one armed Japanese fighter pilot. I always thought he was crazy until one day he pulled out an old artifact that said the exact same story he had been telling me over and over again. Being frightened that I might have spent too much time taking to him and thinking that a citizen was sure to call the supervisor on me, I would try to find a polite way to make my exit but then as I would walk toward my car the old man would say “you got time for one more?” I couldn’t tell him no so I would set back down and listen as he would tell me his story’s of when he was a school teacher and taught Ross Perot’s son at one of the big time school’s in dallas, texas.

His intelligence level is way more than I could ever comprehend so I would just go along with it and try to interpret it the best I could. I’m not sure what it is but even though we don’t share a lot of thing’s in common due to our age difference I feel like he is one of best friends I have ever had, and as I get back into my patrol car and drive down the street I can’t help but wonder what more great stories he has waiting to tell me on our next visit.