6 Large Dark Roasts to Go. And Use These Bottles.

The first time we heard this request, we thought the guy giving it was a bit nuts. And we weren't even certain we could fulfill the request according to the health code. But we did.

And we continued to dozens of times.  120 ounces of hot dark roast parceled between six empty sanitized bottles.

Sadly, it's an order we'll never hear again. We just learned that Jack Smith passed 11 days ago.

Jack first visited us sometime in the summer of 2008.  After a couple of visits we got up the nerve to ask what he was doing with all this coffee. Jack had oral cancer. He couldn't take coffee via the usual route, so he "drank" it through his feeding tube.

He'd show up once or twice a week with his bottles.  As our airpots didn't hold that much coffee, he'd patiently wait while we brewed another pot.  So we got to talking.

Sometimes his cancer treatments left him unable to talk much.  But on the days he could talk... boy, could he talk!  And we'd let him until he was too tired to go on. He'd been places, knew people and done things that were intertwined with some of the more interesting developments back in the 60s and 70s on the West Coast.  He'd known Jimi and Janis and Jerry and Abbie.  He'd even been on the bus (although he denied taking part of the proceedings). 

There were times when Jack came in that we'd want to lock the doors behind him so we could just sit and listen to his stories.  You never knew exactly where his tales would lead, what famous characters would make an appearance or what major event was the circumstance.  You just knew his was one-of-a-kind life and hoped he'd put all his thoughts into a memoir for posterity before it was too late. 

As the summer turned to fall and fall into winter, Jack had increasing difficulty talking and you could tell it was frustrating for him.  And then he stopped coming in at all.  We figured the worst had happened, but the a couple of staff reported seeing him the following spring. And then we bumped into him outside Aladdin's last summer.  He seemed in good spirits and voice.  Turned out his doctors had ordered him to quit putting coffee into his feeding tube and he resigned himself to following those orders.  He apologized for not telling us and we simply asked if he would just stop by every now and then to say hi when he was up to it.

We hope you're enjoying a nice cup of coffee up there Jack.  Wish we'd had more time to spend together.

Comments

[Michelle]

Jack, you will be missed!

[Jeen Dee]

I need a Decaffeinated Tea after reading this. Jack was truly an individual worthy of recognition and I commend you for giving into his request although others would have easily turned him down. God bless you Jack.

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