The 4th Annual Fudge Man Day

  Longtime readers may remember my entry about John Roach, the Fudge Man, one of the regular platelet donors at the Melville Blood Center. In the years since his passing, we have celebrated Fudge Man Day in his honor. (Past accounts are here and here.) This morning we gathered for the fourth annual event.
  We were joined by two of John's brothers, along with one of his former co-workers. Once again, there were fridge magnet calendars and key chains to commemorate the occasion... and plenty of fudge. Though a couple of our regulars were ill and could not donate -- they will make up for it at a future date, for sure -- all the platelet donor beds were filled. In addition, a number of folks came in and donated pints of whole blood. It was a fitting tribute to John,
   One of the platelet donors this morning was a first-timer. We were chatting in the canteen afterwards and she said that she was doing it as a tribute to her father, who had recently died of cancer, but had received numerous platelet transfusions during his treatment. I pointed to a couple of the regulars and said, "Odds are, your father had a little bit of some of us in him." She smiled and thanked us and added, "I guess I'll be seeing you here again."
   As she was about to leave, the woman was called over to the front desk by Debbie, the appointments coordinator. Debbie gave her a small box of the fudge and said that John always made sure to give some to first-timers. That was something I didn't know and just one more reason why the Fudge Man was a very special donor.