Perspective

The last 12 months or so have been brutal on my wife and I, physically and emotionally. It went something like this: cold, flu, bacterial infection turned sepsis-hospitalized, prostetitis, wife got MRSA, I got MRSA-hospitalized for 7 days, allergic reaction to Sulfa based drug for MRSA-back in hospital, home care nurse finds heart issue, MRSA again, male dog (13 yrs old) diagnosed with cancer and had to euthanize in a week, mother-in-law suffers stroke and passes in 2 weeks, father (biological) dies, dad (he raised me) dies.

Tough year. But no matter how hard you think you have it, there is always someone who has it worse. In the middle of all that mess, I was playing some $1/$2 no-limit at the Golden Gates Casino in Black Hawk, explaining to a friend why he hadn't seen me playing in quite some time. I told him my trials up to that point, and how hard it was and how tough I had it. Almost like some "badge of courage". A young kid a couple of seats to my right, early 20s, head hanging down looking at the table quietly spoke up "I had a tough year, too". "Yeah, mine was probably worse. Hospital three times, almost died twice.", I said. "Sounds like a tough year. I'm not trying to one up you", he calmly said. Never raised his head or his voice. Didn't say anything else but something about the way he said it had me ask him how bad his year was. "Well," he said, never raising his eyes from the felt, "my mom lost her job and had to move in with me. My girlfriend was already living with me. They didn't get along before and it just got worse. Neither of them had jobs and I was supporting both of them. Then mom got cancer and she died. Then I lost my job. I couldn't pay my mortgage and my house went into foreclosure. Then I got cancer. It's terminal. My girlfriend couldn't handle it all and she left me. I don't blame her, it's a lot to handle. I got evicted from my house a couple of weeks ago. I'm staying on a friends couch."

A few hands later, he lost the small amount of chips he had in front of him, graciously said goodbye to the table and left.

I'd never seen before and I haven't seen him since. I don't know what happened to him. But I'm grateful to have spent some minutes with him, because it put things in perspective for me...