Sadly, He Was Taken On The Assumption, 35 Years Ago Today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               Over the past year, darlings, you have heard me speak of some guys I actually hung out with during my high school years.  Alan, whom I have written about on here, is deceased, while Neil, whom I recently saw on my visit to HP, is alive and well, and we correspond.  It was during one of these correspondences, I asked Neil about Elliott, whom I was never able to track down.  Sadly, there was a reason for that, and Neil was the one to tell me that on this day, back in 1988, Elliott died of cancer (I do not know what kind.) at the young age of 32.

                                 Back up a bit.  Elliott and I met in the high school cafeteria.  I was a sophomore, he a freshman.  We hit it off; he was not only bright, and funny, but I have to confess, cute.  With his blond hair and glasses, he was sure to charm.  But I was not about to go there.  He was on the Electric Squad, so he had a talent for mechanics.  When our school, before I graduated, started its radio station WVHP, Elliott threw himself into it, and I knew he had found his passion.  

                                  We stayed in touch all through high school, but after graduation, went our separate ways.  Eight years after I graduated, in 1981, I had started working at Lincoln Center Library, and was getting on the evening bus back home to New Brunswick, and then to Highland Park, where I was still living with my father, on South Third Avenue.  While boarding the bus, I saw Elliott seated, and we rode home together, catching up.  His father picked us up, and gave me a ride home.  Elliott was working in NYC too, in broadcasting.  He ended up working for Channel 5, before they went all right-wing, and I am sure he was going to go far.  His older brother, Stanley, three years older than I, was voted Class Genius, and is living somewhere out in the Seattle area.  He would be 71 today; Elliott 67.

                                    I wish he had lived till then.  He was the sweetest guy, and yet I think he liked Highland Park, because for a time, maybe till his death, he was living on North Third Avenue, almost directly across town from where his family lived, on Felton Avenue.

                                       I laugh and smile when I think about Elliott.  But I also wish he could have still been here to fulfill his potential, and maybe for us to reconnect.

                                        When I first found out his death date, I said, "My God, he was taken on The Assumption."  That would not have meant anything to Elliott, who was Jewish, but it meant something to me.  Dying on this day, I know he was in good hands, and was taken safely and lovingly to where he now awaits those of us who knew and cared about him.  My only regret is I wish I had known, as I would have visited him prior to his death.

                                          Rest In Peace, Elliott!!!!!!!!!!!  Live on in the memories of myself and others.

                                          You were meant to be taken on a good day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!