By Michael Golden, originally published in the ‘Golden Mean’

I did not cry after I said goodbye to my friend, but as I drove away from his house and headed toward the freeway that leads out of Fresno, I could feel my heart clench. Then I noticed my hands were clenched tightly to the top of the wheel. All I could think about was how monstrously cruel a disease like Parkinson’s can be. And what a very good man my friend is.

I first met Bud Elliott 29 years ago on my first day at KSEE-TV, the NBC affiliate in California’s sprawling Central Valley. We were in adjacent cubicles, inches apart and at eye level. We could hardly have been more different: He was a 30-year veteran news anchor, I was the young reporter still hungry to learn. He was a conservative, I was a liberal. He, a good Christian. Me, a proud Jew. Bud was reserved in his speech and had a killer dry wit. I talk a lot, and you’d hardly describe my sense of humor as clever.

Continue reading the story in the Golden Mean: ‘A Friendship. A Local Legend. And the Battle Of A Lifetime.’

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