The recent spate of social media posts and news reports of people who refuse to get free, potentially life-saving Covid vaccines reminds me painfully of two stories about people I knew.

Spoiler alert: The two are no longer with us.

One was good friend and former roommate Bruce Obits at Grand Valley State College. The other was Donna Smith Matthews, ex-sister-in-law of old chum Jon Gambee.

Bruce Obits was one of three roomies I had during my sophomore year in college. We had a lot in common and were good friends.

But I learned in 1971 he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system. He underwent radiology therapy for treatment, and as so often happens, “they thought they got it all.” They were wrong.

Bruce in 1972 announced his cancer had returned. But then he made a crucial and fatal decision — he refused chemotherapy, maintaining he didn’t want those toxic drugs circulating inside his body, drugs that could be worse than the disease.

Bruce opted instead for vitamin supplements and natural “remedies” touted as being effective and more benign. He died in November 1973.

I remember talking to him over the phone when he was in the hospital. Because of my cowardly attitude toward him during his last days, I tried to forget my passive and innocuous conversation. All I remember was his telling a nurse to take back a shake he was prescribed for gaining weight.

Bruce’s death deeply affected me personally. In 1968, I introduced him to Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony, which he took home and played for his mother in Newaygo. He requested the second movement (“Goin’ Home”) to be played during his funeral.

I was even more personally affected because I myself was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease in March 1981. But there were two crucial differences between Bruce and me. I reluctantly agreed to five rounds of chemotherapy, and 40 years later I’m still alive.

The drugs I had to take made me very sick and even gave me Shingles, but I somehow survived the ordeal.

While undergoing chemotherapy, I read two books by Laurel Lee, “Walking Through the Fire” and “Signs of Spring,” outlining her battle with Hodgkins Disease. I learned she only had radiotherapy at first in 1975, and the disease returned about a year later. So she was stuck with those awful drugs that really made her sick.

But Lee didn’t die until August 2004, of complications from pancreatic cancer. She lived for 29 years after her first diagnosis.

Donna Smith Matthews was the sister of pediatric nurse Dorothy Smith Mika Gambee, Jon’s first wife. She had a crushing breast cancer diagnosis a couple of decades ago.

But rather than have those terrible drugs invade her body, Donna chose a treatment regimen similar to that of Bruce Obits. Her tragic result was the same.

I have heard other stories about people who have bravely rejected traditional prescribed treatment, and the results almost always have been death. Some desperate souls have even taken up healing claims from charismatic preachers and their ilk. Don’t get me started on parents who have let their children die because they don’t believe in medical treatment such as blood transfusions.

Readers should watch Steve Martin’s movie “Leap of Faith,” or even better, Sarah Kernochan’s Oscar-winning documentary “Marjoe.”

So I am both astonished and sad when I see and hear Facebook postings and meeting attendees reject a free vaccine that very likely will save lives insisting the issue is nothing more than a matter of choice and freedom.

Their comments bring back terrible memories that don’t end well.