This is about friends. As I get older I try not to take anything for granted and, for the most part, think I’m doing a pretty good job with that. But friends are in a special category and I consider myself quite fortunate to have the friends I do.

The call from someone is just a call, but the call from a friend – a good friend – at any time of day or night is the call, whether it’s 3 p.m. or 3 a.m., and you’re happy to answer and hear that familiar voice of your friend on the other end....

Two weeks ago I wrote an article about friends. Little did I know that I would visit with my friends – my two best friends – shortly thereafter and try, as best I could, to console and comfort them. The news came on April 9.

For one friend, the death of his mother was not entirely unexpected. She was approaching 94, still strong of heart and will, but diminished in spirit by the death of her older sister, nearing 96, with whom she had lived for the past decade, and who had passed away...

The day had finally come. It had been a long wait, but finally the moment had arrived. And it was beautiful!

The moment, of course, was my first swim in Walden Pond this season. Not the first of the year, mind you. That had occurred on January 3. But it was the first of the new season, and it could not have come soon enough.

I had been tempted a few other times, but had always come up with excuses not to – too cold, too cloudy, too windy, didn’t feel so good. This time there were no...