On Terry and Vera Cummins, and doing what you have to do.

As noted in the previous posting ("College student from Lanesville saves life with bone marrow donation"), I went to high school with Larry Cox, Chuck Freiberger and approximately 350 others, who graduated from Floyd Central in the Class of 1978.

Way back then, Terry Cummins was the FCHS assistant principal in charge of students, a job that included administering discipline. Then as now, I was a malcontent ... meaning we saw a lot of each other. Eventually I became a bit much even for Terry to handle alone, and my file was handed to a different administrator who was more of a Dean Wormer type.

This isn't a eulogy, but Terry's not doing well in terms of health, and neither is his wife Vera.

CUMMINS: Do what you have to do

Beginning in the 1990s through the helpful medium of the Public House, I got to know Terry as an adult. Since then, in spite of a periodically adversarial relationship with the local journalism cadre, one thing I've tried not to miss in the newspaper is his weekly column, and if you've ever read his writing, it makes perfect sense that he'd be writing about his life as it is, right now -- without a trace of annoyance or self-pity, just matter-of-factly, and from a position of bedrock values and an accompanying spiritual serenity.

Is there a better purpose than to live well and die well? For more than 80 years, Vera and I lived well, despite a few kinks here and there. What more could we ask?

Indeed. Please keep both these fine people in your thoughts.