
I was sitting at my desk when my phone buzzed. It was a text from Angus Menzies, my best friend since childhood. Our plan to go canoeing near our hometown of Ottawa, Ontario, was a go.
"Got a brand-new canoe for us to use," he wrote. "What's your ETA?" I replied that I'd leave work early to catch a bus to Ottawa that afternoon in July 2017. As I had arranged with my wife, Cornelia Mars, I would only be gone for 24 hours, a minivacation that seemed impossibly exciting after many months spent close to home helping care for our 2-year-old daughter.
I felt invigorated on the Greyhound bus a couple of hours later as it rumbled steadily onward, the forest a blur outside the window. It had been a year since I'd seen Angus. But as kids, then teenagers and into our 20s, we were inseparable, more like brothers than friends. Although we'd seen each other infrequently in recent years-both of us busy with our families and living in different cities-he never felt out of reach.
Angus was waiting in the parking lot of the run-down Ottawa bus station when I stepped off the bus into the hot sun. We hugged and climbed into his blue pickup, punk rock blasting.
He drove and we shot the breeze. I felt the mix of comfort and apprehension that develops when you've known someone for 30-plus years-comfort at knowing the person in some ways better than you know yourself, apprehension as you wonder if you still have anything in common. But within minutes we had settled into an easy back and forth.
If Angus was the leader of our group of friends as we navigated our teens the rest of us paying close attention as he defeated bullies and attracted the prettiest girls, inspiring the rest of us to try to be greater versions of ourselves then maybe I acted as a sort of consigliere, a trusted adviser.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March/April 2024 من Reader's Digest US.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March/April 2024 من Reader's Digest US.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول

Rx Mistakes Pharmacists Want You to Quit Making
For starters, take your pills out of the medicine cabinet

OUT OF THE WATER!
A HORRIFIC SHARK ATTACK NEARLY KILLS A SWIMMER... 90 MINUTES LATER, IT HAPPENS AGAIN

My Lucky Day
Six tales of good fortune sure to make you smile

"I CAN'T STOP!"
A sports fan gets sucked into online betting. It nearly wrecks his family.

WE FOUND A FIX!
25 creative cures for everyday dilemmas, from cleaning to cooking to tech and more

The LADIES' MAN IN MY BACKYARD
The soap opera at the bird feeder became a lesson in life

A JUICY SWAP FOR SPORTS DRINKS
Researchers at German Sport University Cologne compared water, a sports drink and diluted cloudy apple juice for their effectiveness at providing energy for runners.

Just a Snore or Something More?
Sleep apnea is on the rise, and it can be dangerous. How to tell if you or your sleeping partner has it.

GLAD TO HEAR IT
3 STORIES TO Make Your Day

A Piggyback Ride from a Stranger
After an elderly woman broke her leg on a hill, a hiker spent hours carrying her down