Nick

I have a photo of Nick Chiapelas and me at dinner five years ago, at an Italian restaurant on Hampton.  I think the guy standing at our table in the middle was our waiter. We had drinks, we had dinner, we talked. And talked. We trades stories and laughs and reminders of our past.

It’s the only photo of Nick I have. There won’t be any more. Nick passed away last week, end of June, 2026.

The older you get, the harder it is to say goodbye to good friends. The pool keeps getting smaller. Nick wasn’t supposed to leave yet. But it wasn’t up to him or his family. Nick and I were members of a highly select group, known as Monday Martini. We meet once a month…on Thursdays. (Don’t ask - It’s a long story) Nick was at our May gathering. In June - just last month - he said he couldn’t make it. That’s when we found out that a highly aggressive form of cancer was taking over his body. Nick was a fighter…but no one wins against this kind of fight.

So I’m writing this on the first Thursday of July, 2026. I’m headed to Monday Martini…on Thursday…in a couple of hours. It will be the first one without Nick in three or four years. The empty chair will fill the space and our thoughts. I’ll miss my lunches and dinners with him, with our exchanged emails and messages about books we’re reading, movies to watch, where to get good Greek food. And I’ll miss my really good friend. But I’ll remind myself how fortunate I was.