More than one person has said to me, "What a waste...to die so young." And I can't help but feel irritated by this logic...to imply that the key to a successful, meaningful life is a long one. None of us are guaranteed a long life and many people live many years and waste too many days. We should all take a bit from the way Duane lived. Take the time to know people the way Duane did. And love and appreciate the differences in people the way Duey did. Duane meant so much to so many people and we will miss the experiences that we might have shared; however, his life was not wasted but in fact he used it very efficiently, and he will continue to live through the way our lives have changed because of his life...and because of his death. I think anyone that knew and loved Duane looks at life differently now. He never earned a college education, he never made sixty thousand dollars a year, he was always broke and we teased him relentlessly about his beat up cars. But he was a very wealthy young man with vast riches invested in friendship and family, far more wealthy than many ninety-year-old men and women, more wealthy than his thirty-one-year-old big brother. Duey will continue to live in our memories and the choice is yours and mine as to how we will apply the lessons that he taught us. ~Chris DuBois
