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I had the pleasure of hanging out with him a few times over the past year.
His words were truncated and his sentences delivered with great difficulty but still he managed to communicate some deeply moving things to me.
On one occasion were driving up on Coyote road looking at the tea fire damage, Jim had been trying to tell me about Jade (his daughter). It had taken him more than ten minutes to say “I love her… I love her” and then, clear as day he blurts out “I’ll never forget that!”
The painful irony was heartbreaking.

Jim liked to eat and drink. A lot. We were in Starbucks and, as usual, he was devouring a pastry and mixing it up with some black coffee when he noticed a Frank Sinatra song playing. His eyes lit up and he gesticulated, smiling at the ceiling and then at me but it was taking me too long to understand so he broke into song. Loudly. For several seconds he blissfully sang along – no words, just sounds – before he embarrassingly stopped, looked around and went back to the pastry.
That was a wonderful carefree moment and, i believe, exactly what he is doing right now.