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Happy birthday Michael J. Varzaly!

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Welsh church to hold spaghetti dinner

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; June 6, Aug. 6, Sept. 6, Oct. 6, Nov. 6.</p><p>Five months, same day, all with significant events.</p><p>Every year, I find myself pondering that date &#8212; the sixth of the month. For those five months, the sixth day brings back memories &#8212; some good, some bad, some tragic.</p><p>The Oct. 6 date is one of great celebration for me &#8212; it&#8217;s my birthday. And while I don&#8217;t usually like to draw attention to it, these days I find myself looking forward to my birthday &#8212; especially when I consider the alternative.</p><p>Yikes!</p><p>This year, my birthday was especially fun &#8212; I heard from people who are special in my life and whose friendship I have always valued. People I went to school with and people I&#8217;ve met on the Highway of Life.</p><p>There were plenty of laughs, a couple good meals and cake &#8212; lots and lots of cake.</p><p>Nov. 6 is my cat&#8217;s birthday. Lily will be 18 this year. She&#8217;s been with me through a lot and she&#8217;s a good listener.</p><p>As far as cats go, Lily isn&#8217;t a people-person. She tolerates me because I feed her, clean her litter box and provide plenty of treats and catnip.</p><p>We shall have a quiet celebration when her big day arrives.</p><p>Now comes the tough part of this five-month struggle with the sixth day.</p><p>On June 6, 1999, Seth Zimolzak graduated from high school. Seth and I became friends through my volunteer affiliation with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Northeastern Pennsylvania.</p><p>Seth was a Wish Kid.</p><p>His life ended on Sept. 6, 1999, bringing an end to his 5-year struggle with cancer.</p><p>Seth and I hit it off right from the get-go. His wish was to play golf with Mike Schmidt, the legendary home run hitting third baseman of the Philadelphia Phillies. He got his wish when he went to Florida and played golf with Schmidt, pro golfer Olin Brown and the great Greg &#8220;Shark&#8221; Norman.</p><p>Seth and I golfed a lot &#8212; he always won. He&#8217;s the kid who wore orange suede shoes to his graduation &#8212; the same shoes I now have and wear in his honor when there&#8217;s a charity event raising money for good causes. The orange shoes &#8212;and Seth&#8217;s story &#8212; have raised a lot of money.</p><p>The Aug. 6 date is very significant. Make-A-Wish was holding a telethon at the Wyoming Valley Mall in 1999 and Seth was there, wearing a tuxedo and looking dapper as ever.</p><p>This day was different from others, though. Seth was very symptomatic at the time. He had ups and downs throughout his battle, but this day, I knew he was sick.</p><p>I could tell, in fact, he was dying.</p><p>Seth was sitting on a couch near the telethon stage was talking to a WBRE-TV reporter and, as I approached, he said, &#8220;Hey buddy, come here, I have something for you.&#8221;</p><p>Seth handed me an envelope with $1,647 &#8212; the money he received at his graduation party two months earlier.</p><p>&#8220;Give this to the kids,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I won&#8217;t be needing it where I&#8217;m going.&#8221;</p><p>I was stunned. Not by Seth&#8217;s generosity, but by his total acceptance of the reality of his situation. This 18-year-old kid knew his battle was about to end and he wouldn&#8217;t be back for another telethon. He knew he wouldn&#8217;t be able to spend that graduation money on fun things like dates, golf or cool clothes.</p><p>As he handed me the envelope, Seth smiled a crooked smile. He looked weak.</p><p>The moment is frozen in time for me. When I&#8217;m having a bad day, I think back to that day and to Seth and his thoughtfulness.</p><p>As I prepared to deliver the eulogy at Seth&#8217;s funeral, all I could think of was the first time I heard him speak. It was at our annual Make-A-Wish ball, when Seth moved the crowd of people in tuxedos and gowns to tears with his recital of a famous speech about time.</p><p>Seth told us all to value time, to make every one of our 86,400 daily seconds count because we can&#8217;t carry them over to the next day. &#8220;Spend your time wisely and spend it with people you care about,&#8221; Seth said.</p><p>Since that day, I try to value every second. Especially on the sixth day of every month.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web1_Oboyle_Bill-2-1-3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle, or email at boboyle@www.timesleader.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Beyond the Byline: Noting specific dates and remembering a friend