Not any book

I finished reading another of my series books - #14 to be exact.  This was one I have been particularly partial to not only because it's a good series but it was first loaned and suggested to me by someone who isn't  around any more.  Like many of the books I read this one was suggested by a friend at work.  He past away one December.  He had been in the hospital for a short amount of time and never recovered from pneumonia.  I remember asking another co-worker about him on the Friday before going home that weekend.  Monday morning the smallish crew that wasn't on vacation was called into a conference room and told the news that our co-worker and friend hadn't made it through Sunday.  Everyone was stunned and so sorry and sad.  It was only 9:00am in the morning and we needed to go back to our cubes and work through the day.
I tried really hard but there was no stopping my tears as I faced my computer monitor and tried to sob without any sound.  I would have gotten up and moved away but it came upon me so quickly and unexpectedly that I couldn't bring myself to move.  I was frozen in place, with shoulders wracking, and tears streaming, with hopes that any sounds I made were muffled and not noticed by anyone else close by.
It's been many Decembers since and now I remember this gruff, soft-spoken (at least always to me) man, kindly lending me a book because he knew I loved to read.  I had even asked him if I could borrow others in the series.  He seemed to hesitate at my outrageous request and told me something to the effect that he would have to look.  But they were on my desk the next morning when I came in.  I picked them up and turned to face him to say thanks.  He waved me off like it was nothing, but I knew it was something.
So I've read the most current in this series and it brought to mind the person that lent me the first and a few others along the way. 
After I read the latest book I was asked recently if I had read 61 Hours.  I said, "yes", and he asked, "Well, what do you think...did Reacher live?" 
I had to pause for a minute and think. Well, you wouldn't think it by the way it ended but yes...he lives on.
TT