This group of Jacksonville gentlemen have been meeting once each week since 1998. Richard LaMee, Mike Heard, Phil Littlefield, Victor Barbé and Roy Miller meet every Monday to talk about good times and bad. All at least 75 years old, they gather for conversation every Monday at a restaurant on the Southside. Changing their meeting location only three times in twenty six years, the size of the group has changed over time. Some friends have passed away, others have lost their wives, a few have remarried but the bond is stronger than steel.
Roy Miller, CPA and a member of the group said, “We’re true friends and we love and support one another like brothers. Sometimes issues are going on with one of us that we need to talk about and help work through.”
Miller says staying social is really important and you should always seek your friends to share your needs. He recommends a poem from one of his favorite books titled, The Prophet.
The Prophet
“When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know it’s flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”
–Kalil Gibran, Author
