“The death of my oldest brother, Sammy, has made me aware of my own mortality because we are close in age. Around the time that he died was when I started having
health problems. So in my mind, even though there’s no causal connection between the two, there’s still an emotional connection.

Initially, I thought I didn’t care because we hadn’t been friends in 20 years. We were just very different people. If he hadn’t died, we still would have not spoken this last year because I didn’t like him. I loved him, however. It’s been less of dealing with an emotional loss. My life hasn’t changed because he’s died. But the combination of his death at an early age (he was only 54) and my own declining health has given me a lot of intellectual things to chew on. When you’re young, you think you’ll live forever. But, of course, now I know I won’t live forever.”