LETTER: A vote in remembrance

I recently learned that a man who worked in a local business had died several weeks ago. He was what I thought of as my sporting-goods friend and we often talked about everything that people of advancing years find reassuring: family, the cost of .22 shells, and politics.

Then I learned that he was “no longer with us.”

A series of disbelief questions followed until reality was inescapable: dead from a stroke. All the conversations poured back trying to fill the empty space behind the counter where he should have been until one thing remained.

Probably no living soul has seen a stranger year in presidential politics, and we often spoke briefly about this. I asked him if he had his president picked out.

He replied, “I’ll hold my nose and vote for the only one I can.”

Now I hold my nose against the loss of life and cast my vote. —John Amundson, Kalispell