In August, John Markoff and I both had to go to Seattle for a meeting. We arranged to see Cary during the trip.
John was much closer to Cary than I was, but I'd known Cary for years, first as a writer for High Technology and then as a fellow Macworld columnist. I was always impressed with him. He not only was super knowledgable but fun to talk with. He carried on a conversation in an even, gentle fashion. When you asked him a question, he'd actually consider it carefully, then give a wonderfully reasoned response. Coming from New York, where people usually begin answering questions before you're finishing asking, I found this trait of Cary's quite pleasing.
Of course, John had told me about the cancer, and both of us knew it might be the last time we saw Cary. But the visit was far from morose. Cary spoke to us matter of factly about his health; he unblinkingly had come to terms with his illness. Not that he had given up--he spoke to us about untraditional methods that might buy him a year more of life. But this was mentioned almost in an offhand manner.
Mostly we talked about the world we shared in common. He offered his theories of bandwidth and the future of telecommunications and as usual he was ultra informed and persuasive. For an hour it was as if there were no hospital bed in the room. Just three tech writers talking shop.
I'm going to miss Cary's voice and his words, his steadying influence, and his heart.