So I had the dream in the previous entry on Tuesday morning.

I posted it Wednesday night around 11 p.m.

At exactly midnight Wednesday (tonight), I get an email from a friend I haven't heard from for years about a mutual friend who just died of cancer. His name was Rich.

I can't remember where I wrote about him in my archives, but I know I did. He was one of the nicest, most conscientious and good-hearted people I've ever met. He loved his children. I'd ask him what it was like to be a father because he was sincere like that. This was before we had our own kids.

He was a senior resident while I was the attending of his team. Puneet (the friend who sent the email tonight) was the intern then. I remember taking them out to GameWorks at the end of the month.

Rich used to be a bodybuilder, he said, but you couldn't tell anymore he'd laugh. He used to be into motorcycles, long hair, and trouble. Then he had kids and fell in love with them. He was five years older than me, and he died of cancer four days ago.

I read through his family's site tonight. He kept saying "thank you" to all the doctors and residents and nurses and techs that he met in his last days in the hospital.

Oh, Rich. I wish I had seen you again, my friend. That strange dream I had, was that you?

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.