A Belated Rest in Peace

The summer before my senior year of high school, we moved. That's a tough time in a teenager's life to move. The fact that Lolo and Hawkshaw moved in large part to get me away from certain friends, made it even more difficult for me to handle.

So, I went from a big, inner city high school to a small town high school, where friendships had been formed years prior to my arrival, and I had to be bused nearly 20 miles from the outer edge of the school district. I started the school year alternating between sorrowful and full of attitude.

I had one girlfriend at the beginning of the year, and no real guy friends. No dates for the activities early in the year. Later, in the winter months, one of the guys became brave enough to ask me out - one very good looking wrestler. Denny Holmberg and I dated most of our senior year of high school, through graduation, and after graduation we even talked about getting married. Some issues arose, however, and we went very separate ways, despite the plans already in progress.

Now that our 40th reunion is being planned, some of those "kids" from my senior year have been in touch, including Denny's friend Mark. Mark wrote to me (in part):
"Denny passed away on Oct. 17th, just two months before his 58th birthday. He had put up a brave struggle for the last 10 years with brain cancer. He ran his bayou tour in the Honey Island Swamp in Lousiana for 20 years. It was a very popular alligator tour with Europeans who toured the US by bus. "

I also found this article about Denny by searching the web - a heartbreaker about how Denny suffered after Katrina:
http://risingfromruin.msnbc.com/2007/08/swamp-tour-oper.html

Rest in Peace, Denny. I'm so sorry we didn't get one last visit.