3 friends who mattered

I want to introduce, posthumously, Morgan Williams, Mike Sweeney and Lal Liyanapathirange and explain their importance in my life.

Brian Bonner, Morgan Williams and Alyona Nevmerzhytska at the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine’s 2018 Thanksgiving Day appreciation dinner.

There are many reasons to dislike growing old – but the worst part, by far, is the family and friends we lose until our turn inevitably arrives.

In the last year alone, I’ve lost three great friends who, while not internationally famous, were influential enough in their own worlds to have newspapers write obituaries about them that included my quotes.

No story or eulogy can capture the essence of their lives. But the world is sadder without them – for me and those who knew them. If I could wish everyone something good, it would be to have friends like these.

Starting with the most recent death, they are:

From Kansas to Kyiv: the Morgan Williams story

The long-time U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) president never stopped working and never retired. He died in his California home on June 8, 2024, after leading the 200-member business association for many years. He was devoted to making America and Ukraine, two agricultural powerhouses, more prosperous. I bonded with Williams over our shared Kansas background, the numerous partnerships between his USUBC and the Kyiv Post newspaper I led from 2008-2021, and his teasing sense of humor. He left a large family of relatives and friends in two countries as his legacy.

Former Kyiv Post colleague Mark Raczkiewycz wrote Williams’ obituary for The Ukrainian Weekly under the headline: Champion and mainstay advocate of Ukraine Morgan Williams dies at 84, so he was 20 years my senior. I think Morgan’s heart just gave out. He even attended an event the day before he died, hosted a YouTube webinar two days before and was texting one of my friends also near the end.

His family held a touching memorial on June 16, which is available for viewing here. I learned a lot about Morgan that I had not known before.

Brian Bonner and Mike Sweeney in January 2022 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

A Vietnam veteran, newspaper editor, and union leader: The Mike Sweeney story

Every successful journalist has favorite editors who guided them from cub reporters to savvy veterans by teaching them the ropes. I was blessed with several, but Mike was unforgettable. He was 16 years my senior, so he knew much more than I did. I was smart enough to shut up and soak in his knowledge.

Mike was special. He was usually easygoing. Yet his Irish temper could flare up as it did when he threatened to throw me out of the 6th-floor newsroom windows because I behaved like a jerk over one of the assignments he had given me as an editor. But we did not let anything as trivial as threatened murder stop our friendship. We golfed and socialized together. Later, he returned to crime reporting before becoming CEO of the Newspaper Guild, the union I belonged to. I took a leadership post on the Representative Assembly, sort of a board of directors, and we had many productive years together trying to improve our members' increasingly difficult working conditions. He was athletic and handsome, a circumstance that irritated me when women in the newspaper (particularly female interns) would tell me how “hot” he was. As his health failed, our friendship never did. But there was no way to see him much, with him in America and me in Ukraine, so we exchanged Facebook messages. I last saw him two years before his death. I was at his retirement party many years ago. The event was crowded, and I am comforted that he knew how much people loved him. He, like Morgan, leaves a large family – and a large hole in his heart because of his death at age 80 on June 1, 2024. He had suffered from Ataxia and Parkinson’s disease.

Here is the obituary in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where we both worked, headlined: “Mike Sweeney, former Pioneer Press crime reporter and CEO of the Twin Cities Newspaper Guild.”

Lal Liyanapathirange surveys tsunami damage in his native Sri Lanka in 2005.

From activism in Sri Lanka to Minnesota, the Ananda Srilal Liyanapathirange story

“Lal,” as his friends called him, led a drive to build 50 new homes, a community center, a library, and a health clinic for Sri Lankans who lost everything in the Christmas tsunami 2004. The beneficiaries were mainly subsistence fishermen and their families. The men went out in boats to the Indian Ocean at dawn and at dusk to catch their keep. I went out with them a few times. I have been to the village and the tropical island several times. The poverty is real. It is, however, disguised by beautiful surroundings that make the place a paradise for tourists. I covered the story for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where I worked from 1983 to 2007.

Lal was also a leader of the Asian community in Minnesota and worked many years for the state. He was a natural leader, so charismatic and trustworthy that people were happy to follow him and give money to his causes. He always seemed surrounded by friends, whether in Sri Lanka or Minnesota. A man with an uncommon zest for living, he died on June 22, 2023, at the age of 76, leaving behind a loving family and impressive legacy. He had suffered a brain hemorrhage. 

Here's his obituary: Woodbury man spearheaded Minnesota’s relief efforts in Sri Lanka after 2004 tsunami

Epilogue

What I have learned about the death of loved ones, if anything, is that they never really leave you, even though they are never coming back into this world. But the hope never dies that you’ll see them again. Until then, each of these friends lived their lives to the fullest. In Morgan and Lal’s cases, they did what they wanted to do until the end. In Mike’s case, he did the same until his body failed him.

Live every day like it may be the last, and make sure to stay connected with those you love.