My youngest daughter has a gentleman friend of long standing who is a counselor for the courts. He is 71 and he no longer drives due to macular degeneration. He lives on the other side of town, and when he sees clients here he stays overnight in a motel nearby. She is not driving either at this time, so Bert dropped her off to spend the evening with him.

She called at midnight asking to be picked up, but Bert was sleeping and I didn't want to get up and go out to go get her. She was going to come with me this morning to a doctor's appointment which is on the way past the motel. I asked her to stay overnight, and I'd pick her up in the morning. The two of them stayed up all night watching TV, and then he fell asleep and she called at 5:30 in the morning for me to pick her up.

I am always up by then. But it was still dark and I told her to call me back about 6. She went to the motel office, where they were serving pastries and coffee, and then went back to the room only to find it locked. She knocked, no answer. She went back to the office asking to be let in to the room, but they wouldn't do it since she was not on the rental agreement. So she called me again and I left to get her. It was between 6 and 6:30. The door was still locked, and he didn't answer, so she left with me, thinking she'd get her stuff later in the morning.

After my doctor's appointment we went shopping at the International Market, spent a delightful few hours choosing interesting veggies and exotic spices. We stopped at the 99 cents store, I bought some cleaning stuff. We went to McDonalds and bought 6 frappes to take home to our peeps. And she wondered aloud several times why Chuck hadn't called her about her stuff.

We were greeted at home by my oldest daughter who said she'd been called by an acquaintance who was staying at that same motel. Chuck hadn't surrendered the room, wasn't answering the knocks, and the police had been called. We turned around and headed out, back to the motel.

Caryn reached the room before me, peeped in the window, and saw a form on the bed covered by a blanket. The police came over to her, said not to look in there, and questioned the both of us.

Chuck was dead. After hearing what we had to say, and the condition he was in, the police felt he had died right after Caryn left the room to get coffee. And that's why he didn't answer anyone's knock all day. And why he never called her about getting her stuff. It's been a terrible shock. They've been good friends for many years.