I just lost a dear friend.

She died very suddenly, on her 65th birthday, of a cerebral hemorrhage. Her husband kept her on life support long enough to harvest her organs, as she had wished.

I had just seen her, and she was happy. She had an identical twin sister. Her twin died of cancer when they were twenty-four. It was so tough on Joan to lose her twin! We were all friends growing up.

Few people could tell the girls apart. I had spent so much time around them that I had no trouble doing that.

When we were in high school, they had a job waitressing in a family restaurant. They would pretend to be one very fast waitress instead of twins. They got great tips that way.

I will be going to the visitation tomorrow, and to the funeral, canceling the dental appointment for my broken tooth. The tooth will have to wait. This is important.

So much has been going wrong here. Surely things will get better soon.

At least Joan can be with her sister now.