Cascading down through the years like a beautiful ribbon marking the pages of my life, our friendship spanned far longer than our two lifetimes and therefore does not recognize mortality.  Having already been accustomed to our long-distance relationship, I find that this existence without him continues without paper, pen, or phone. But it has been almost 60 years since I first saw him.  I vividly recall that my eight-year-old-self stopped breathing and that very second remains memorialized for me.  With absolutely nothing to go on but generational memory, I recognized him. Of course it was a Western.  Having been obsessed with horses since birth, I was an avid viewer of Westerns; luckily for me, they were in vogue at the time.  But I directed my mother’s attention to the television.  I insisted that I knew the person on the screen.  No explanation of hers could change my mind.  Was it…