Day 68

One of things I miss about Damian is his sense of humor. He made me laugh countess times, which is not that easy to do. He could spot irony from a mile away and had an innate ability to frame things in humorous ways, even on topics that were not inherently funny. 

One story that I shared at the celebration of life service took place in 2021, during the height of the COVID pandemic. The rate of infections was climbing rapidly as was the body count. In the spirit of "it could always be worse", I foisted upon Damian and Dawn the Hollywood clunker that is "Outbreak" starring Morgan Freeman, Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Donald Sutherland. This is a terrible movie about an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the United States. 

With this cast you might be asking yourself, "How bad can it be?" It's terrible. Please take my word on this. If you are reading this blog you are probably already in pain so unless you enjoy suffering you will definitely want to avoid this dumpster fire. You've been warned.

The virus has gotten loose with most of the inhabitants of a small city in Oregon or Washington having been infected. The only way to stop the spread of the virus is for the the US Army to kill all the people of this town, including the not sick, by way of some very large and powerful bombs says the evil general (Sutherland). There is a slim chance, however, that two determined scientists (played by Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo) can find a cure in time provided the hawk General advocating for mass murder doesn't find them first and have them arrested. The key to a cure resides with an escaped monkey that is cavorting in the local forrest and busy making friends with a little girl. A few hours before the bombs are set to drop, our heroic scientist (Hoffman), with the help of an insubordinate Army Major (Gooding Jr.), catches the monkey. As the minutes tick down to zero, he synthesizes a cure, tests it and starts inoculating the townsfolk who all show almost instantaneous improvement upon getting the shot. Countless deaths averted just in the nick of time. (Whew, that was close!)

As the credits started to roll, Damian turned to me and said in a totally deadpan voice: "Well, I know how to cure COVID. All I need is some orange juice, a monkey and a blender." I still laugh at that one.  And then I get melancholy. No more zingers. No more humorous stories. No more sarcasm. 

At least not from Damian. [heavy sigh...]

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