Not minutes after I wrote that post, I checked my e-mail and found that my mother had gotten in contact with my friend's uncle.

The tumor first manifested two months ago, while my friend was working at Home Depot, in the form of sudden vision problems. Cody's worn glasses for a while, so that might have been only slight concern at the time, but shortly afterwards he began losing some motor control.

My mother said she wasn't told how much of his vision remains, but his motor skills are basically gone, and he's confined to a wheelchair. He's up in Nashville right now receiving treatment—thirty-six consecutive treatments. His uncle didn't mention how many he'd already had.

I will be heading home this weekend to see if I can visit him; it's been a while since we've seen each other, but he was my friend once. I don't take that lightly.

I hope I'm strong enough to see him.