LFS: The Storyteller

©2013 by LeeZard NOTE: I’ve written before about growing up in Laurelton, NY ( http://leezardonlife.blogspot.com/2008/12/corner.html ) but the piece was about a specific spot in Laurelton and the high school to which we all went. This story is about one man, a small almost anonymous man, and the large impact he had on us all. --- Sometimes the mind wanders. Recently mine was wandering down memory lane, back to the section of South Queens in New York City where I grew up. My mind takes me there often. It’s called Laurelton and to those who grew up there it was a magical place. I can’t tell you why but I do know that many of the friendships born there endure to this day. Located in the southeast corner of Queens, Laurelton was, and still is, a working middle-class area with mostly small well-kept single-family homes and a strong sense of community. Maybe that was the source of the magic; we were closely knit and we all cared about the place and its people. Whenever I ...

©2013 by LeeZard Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes…… Billy Joel, Say Goody-bye to Hollywood Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future…… Steve Miller, Fly Like an Eagle Time is an illusion….. Albert Einstein Courtesy of  Sarah Sharbach There are friends in life and then there are the people you love. These are the friends with whom, even if you don’t see them for years, you can still resume the last conversation in mid-sentence. If we are very lucky we have more than one or two of these friends. I am blessed to count Jim and Jackie Stutzman in that circle. Sadly, Jackie passed away late last month, following a brief, valiant battle with Leukemia. We of my generation are certainly becoming aware of our mortality but this is not a Boomer’s view on life and death. Nor is this a eulogy, an obituary or even a tribute (although a Jackie tribute could fill several pages); this is a reflection on TIME. I met Jim Stutz...