I met Timmy Keogh when we were both twenty-four years old.  He, a rope, and his ponytail, were stretched over the top of a scenic element at the Hudson Theater.  Timmy was dangling the dead end of a piece of hemp making it dance on the deck begging for a rigger, any rigger to attach it to a piece of scenery.  I dropped the Century zooms I was carrying and offered to help.  He asked,  "Do you know how to tie a bowline?"  I said, "No I'm a fucking retard" as I tied it.  I looked up and he was smiling that grin of his, the one that anyone who has known him knows so well.  I smiled.  Timmy and I got to know each other as co-workers, drinking, and Marlboro smoking companions.  We soon quit those activities  (him a little sooner than I did) and became friends.
Not long afterwards we found ourselves in the grid together at Unitel 76 working on American Journal I think, when we first discussed him asking out that hot make up girl (Jill), I approved, though I was dubious as to whether he could actually close the deal (little did I know that he had been laying the groundwork for a while).  
A couple of years later we were talking about the two potential girl names they were considering.  I swear they were choosing between Olivia and Agatha.  Timmy denied this later and refused to remember the other name, only able to imagine the one of the little girl he loved so, so, so, much (the others as well of course). 
We understood each other very, well growing into men together over glasses of water at his kitchen table on 117th street and talk of our children.  I knew that I could count on Timmy for anything in the whole world until this past Friday.  There are not many people that you can say that for in this life and now I and many others bothering to read this have one less.  I could have been a better friend to Timmy when we were still boys really and I will always regret that I wasn't.  I hope he knew that he could have counted on me for anything in the world too.  I think he did. (HYF) 

-Raf


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