Royal Marshall and unexpected happenings

I was reminded of a tidbit of advice that a married friend of mine gave me many years ago.  I was over at their house and his wife was going up the street to run a couple quick errands.  On her way out of the room he said “Hey, I Love you”.

“Dude, she’s just going to the bank she’ll be right back, why did you have to say that”, I said.

“Well, if she gets in a car accident or something happens and that’s the last time I see her, then I wanted those to be our last words.   I always end our conversations with ‘I love you’”.  At the time that sounded odd, but keep in mind I was a single guy who was mainly hanging out with the married couple to meet their single lady friends.

While my intentions weren’t that shallow, I really didn’t follow the logic behind my friend and the way he ended a conversation with “I Love you”.  To me it seemed too dire and pessimistic, like you were always waiting for something tragic or unexpected to happen.

Over the weekend though, something tragic and unexpected did happen.  Royal Marshall, a radio show producer in Atlanta died suddenly.  In addition to having his own radio talk show he was the producer of The Neil Boortz Show.

Royal wasn’t a friend of mine, I didn’t even know him, he could’ve walked past me on the street and I would not have known.  Occasionally I would hear him chime in with an opinion on the Boortz show, but that was it.

Royal was a loving husband and father though.  He was also only one year older than me and he died suddenly of a heart attack.  Royal was a fit guy.  I heard him talk about playing golf, as well as, other ways to keep active.

That’s the other reason why his death affected me.  An active guy, one year older than me, with no pre-existing conditions suddenly dies of a massive heart attack.  When I heard that news it made me very thankful for my wife, child, family, friends and health.

After thinking about Royal Marshall’s untimely passing I remembered what my friend used to do when his wife left the house.  I Love you.  It suddenly makes a bit more sense now what my friend does.  Life is a temporary gift and we need to make the most of it.  It truly is our oyster and it can be what we make it.

One of the funniest producing bits that Royal did while he was with Boortz was Boo Got Shot.  I’m going to listen to this and then go tell me wife I Love her.