Goodbye Joel

My very dear friend, the film critic, Joel Siegel passed away today. As I write this blog I remember how he had recently sent me his new film blog for my "opinion" as I was a blogger. As if he needed my advice!
Joel and I went to UCLA together and had resumed our friendship when I moved to NY in 1989.
In between his marriages of which there were a few...he'd take me out to movies and theater and we were very good if platonic friends. He would invite me to his country home and we shared a lot of laughs and then great sadness when he found out he had cancer.
Over the years he waged a valiant battle against the disease, mostly for his darling little boy Dylan.
He had waited a long time to be a dad and he was a great one.
I had just called his voice machine at Good Morning America because I hadn't heard from him when I emailed as we used to do, nor had he returned a few calls and the last time I saw him about ten days ago, he was very weak.
Then I found out he was in the hospital and passed away.
I have many memories of Joel, but that is not enough to keep me from feeling very sad and I know I will miss him forever.
Value your friends. Tell them you love them.