Eddie and the Nightbirde

Photo (L) of Nightbird via Instagram and Eddie (R) via Drexel High Yearbook

Seven days before I ever heard of Nightbirde…

I knelt at the bedside of a friend who could no longer speak. His name was Edward, but I always thought of him as Eddie, which is what he’d gone by during all the years we were in elementary and high school together.

As Eddie, he’d been a crack basketball player, a fast-breaking forward who never failed to surprise his opponents. As Edward, he was a prominent banker, a man with deep pockets, a board member of a foundation that distributed $7 million dollars to underserved populations.