I was shocked to find out yesterday that the lifeguard had died. I felt doubly bad because over all the years he was at the pool I never learned his name. When I would swim we talked all the time. He knew my name and knew what I did. In fact he would profess to anyone who would listen that he was big fan of my work. We would talk about training, lifting weights and above all football. He was huge football fan. We used to talk about what we had learned from Strength & Health magazine. We used to swap stories about the good old days of football. He was fanatic Penn State fan, when he found out that I was friends with Dave Joyner (Former All American lineman at Penn State) he was beside himself. Two years ago I gave him all my back issues of Milo magazine and a bunch of issues of Training & Conditioning, that was food for pre swim discussion for a while.
I had not seen him since late last spring. I had been gone a lot during the summer and when I did not see him this fall I thought maybe he has been shifted to another pool or assigned to the beach. Yesterday when I was finished swimming I asked the lifeguard where he was. I wanted to give him a bad time about Illinois beating Penn State and brag about Stanford beating USC. She told me he had retired at the end of May and passed away a month later. He was 61. I was floored. It stayed with me all day. I felt bad, I had never learned his name. The news made think how each of us can make a difference, how we can effect people in positive ways. I will miss our conversations, my friend the lifeguard, may you rest in peace. Somehow swimming will not be the same now that I know you will not be there.