"I suppose I wasn't much fun to be with [Billy was recovering from cancer], but that didn't matter to John.

'Hey, oddball, you want to play some Frisbee?'

I'd give him a look, and come back with, 'That's not funny. Don't you realize I could have died?'

'Yeah, but you didn't. Come on. Let's go.'

That was very Kennedy: You survived by counting your blessings, which means that you soldier on. 'We have to soldier on" -- that was a special phrase to Jackie and her children. As a survivor, too, I now had a better sense of what they felt, how important it is to count one's blessings."
--William Noonan, from his memoir, "Forever Young"

(L-R: Billy Noonan; John's friend from Brown Univ.; John's girlfriend, Sally Munroe, 1982)