It’s been a year since Andy McLaren died. My tribute to him appeared in today’s edition of the Donegal Post (4 July 2018):

Andy McLaren died shortly after midsummer last year. He spent the last week of his life in the Intensive Care Unit of Letterkenny General Hospital, where only immediate family members were permitted to visit. A sympathetic nurse carried messages back and forth. Andy was on a breathing apparatus, and he didn’t want me to see him under those circumstances. He said that he’d let me know as soon as he was better, but his lungs were too damaged and his resistance was too low. He died on Sunday, July 2.

I miss Andy. I miss hurrying into Linda’s Diner to find him sitting with one eye on the clock and the other on a rumpled newspaper, halfway through a cup of coffee and wondering how late I…