ROCCO

Rocco

A friend of mine had to say good-bye to a good friend of his today.

ROCCO!

I never met Rocco, but my friend talked about him...posted pictures of him...I almost felt like I knew him.

It sounds as if he was a friend to all.

He loved going to the beach (who doesn't, right?).

He was usually seen in pics, sporting a red bandana.

My friend met Rocco about 14 years ago and they became fast, best friends.

My friend is also a runner like me.

If he wasn't posting pics of running some marathon, he was posting pics of him and Rocco hanging out...playing in the snow....chilling in front of the fire place....inseparable.

I think about the pics and stories I've read about Rocco and my friend.  One of my favorites is when my friend ran the New York City Marathon in 2016.  If you have never ran that majestic marathon or even seen it on TV, let me tell you, it is something to behold.  Usually, runners, like my friend, will put their names on their race singlets so that when they are running through the streets of New York, you can hear the people from the crowd (about a million deep over the course of the race) calling out the name on your shirt.

So my friend, in honor to Rocco, puts 'ROCCO' across his singlet just so that he can hear "come on ROCCO"  "good job ROCCO"  "you got this ROCCO" for 26.2 miles and use that as motivation to run.  

LOVE.IT!

So, tonight, there's a gap...a HUGE hole in my friends heart.

Unfortunately, sometimes in our BEST YEAR YETs, we have to say good bye.

The pain won't ever go away....but it will ease up as the days, weeks, months and years go by.  But that pain however strong or faint that it will be will be a reminder to the indent that ROCCO made into my friends life.

RIP Rocco.  You will be missed, but never forgotten.

Wish I would have had a chance to meet you!