Abner farewell

He came in June 2008, represented as a youngster of Germanic ethnicity. Perhaps I should have suspected this was just a ploy to meet expectations when I saw him drop a social security check and seemed to detect a hint of an Australian accent. He seemed glad to settle in, yet had just a bit of aloofness that contradicted his friendly disposition.

He was a friend to all and did not have any bluster or criticism toward new acquaintances. He joined the DA staff shortly after arriving, and his first post was a little critical of anti-Democratic Party television broadcasting company Sinclair. His September post was a bit of doggerel about Sarah Palin lying, and, in his last post, he referred to Bill McCormack of the Christian Coalition as a "lying sack of shit" for insisting proposed health care reform included a provision wherein the government would administer a program of euthanasia. I guess, for all his friendliness, he could not abide lying ideologues.

In September, Abner suddenly lost his appetite and his energy. We learned that he suffered from a form of cancer that quickly debilitated him; hospital care could not save him.

Abner is gone too soon, but his brief time among us has brightened our lives.