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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWell it finally happened,
Someone I know very well has died from coronavirus.
She was a 91-year-old woman who had been the widow of a dentist who fundamentally helped me build my dental practice from zero to what it finally became.
She was the kindest, sweetest, most interested, and genuinely caring individual Whom I have ever had the privilege of meeting among my peers. She was intrinsically involved in almost every aspect of her synagogue, of which she was a lifelong member. She will be missed by many hundreds of local individuals whom she had counted as genuine friends. She raised four intellectual children in a progressive and pragmatic manner and imbued each of them with a sense of decency, kindness, and a real affection for humanity and for the progress of civilization.
Lest you think that 91 is a terrific age to live to, and it is, I had run into her near Rittenhouse Square where she lived about two months ago and she was just as bright and fiery and charming and sentient as she had been 45 years ago when I met her. Her mother lived to age 100, and had been fully cognizant, humorous, and full of life to nearly the very day she left this earth.
I awakened this morning to the Philadelphia Inquirer, I turned to the obituary page as I normally do and simply stopped breathing when I saw her name. I left a message for her son who is also a dentist and ask him to please call me when he had the opportunity, that I knew it was an extraordinarily busy time for him. Within an hour he called me and we spent nearly an hour and a half on the phone reminiscing, discussing her influence upon so many, and what he said he felt about the loss of his mother, his responsibilities to the family, and the nature of the dynamic which she had left so quickly.
In my objective opinion, as a clinician who is treated many geriatric and super geriatric patients, she had a long time, relatively speaking, left to live. The lightning bolt which killed her is almost incomprehensibly resolute in its effect.
I, like many others, will miss her terribly. She is among the last of a generation which has passed and is passing into oblivion, ironically having survived the depression the various maladies which may strike anyone, she was felled in my opinion, by the actions and inactions of one Donald J Trump. I will add this to the debit sheet of Unforgivable sins which he has committed.
sorry for your loss, she is an amazing person
Tree-Hugger
(3,370 posts)I am sorry for your loss and for her family's loss.
Alliepoo
(2,215 posts)She sounds like a terrific lady.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,328 posts)Siwsan
(26,260 posts)She was a wife, a mother and a grandmother. I remember her as being one of those very joyous individuals who always raised spirits, instead of squashing them. She deserved a much longer and happy retirement.
vercetti2021
(10,156 posts)Seeing this just makes me very sad. We could stopped this
monmouth4
(9,694 posts)ProfessorGAC
(65,001 posts)You take care!
peggysue2
(10,828 posts)Particularly when you know it was avoidable. Trump and his enablers have blood on their hands.
We must never forget what we've witnessed, read, heard in these awful days.
Condolences.
Hekate
(90,648 posts)I am so sorry for the loss of your friend.
marble falls
(57,079 posts)able to make up for what has been taken from us. They're letting knowledge, culture, connections just be frittered away as so much nothing; just statistics. There will be a reckoning for their machinations, there will never be a recovery for the damage they caused.
Thank you for putting a face and sense of who she was on your friend.
sheshe2
(83,746 posts)scrabblequeen40
(334 posts)calimary
(81,220 posts)I fear your first sentence is gonna become a statement shared by many of us as the days trudge by.
I'm so sorry. Sounds like a big loss to your heart. All my sympathies. We're lucky, indeed, when we have people like that in our lives. For however long we're lucky to have them.
GoneOffShore
(17,339 posts)redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)Your eulogy of her life is beautiful. So sorry for your loss and the loss to her community.
Mira
(22,380 posts)and I am sad with you for a loss of such deep proportions. Your tribute is touching and brings her to life. I wish she could read it.
A good friend of mine who moved here from New York is mourning the death of a first cousin there who was felled by Covid19 and the husband of the cousin is on a ventilator.
Hard times for so many. And a time for self and other reflection and gratitude for those of us who are able to stay as safe as possible.
Caliman73
(11,735 posts)Your post was very eloquent and well said. I agree with your last statement as well. The incompetence and callousness with which Trump has acted and failed to act is responsible for the loss of your friend.
Death is a natural part of life, and we hurt no matter how or when someone we care about dies. Usually, when a person reaches advanced age, we do find some solace that they lived a long and interesting life and leave behind memories and family to carry on. Even at 91 her death is tragic in that it is the result of an illness that could have been contained had we had a decent human being in the White House. It would not have happened had we had a person who listens to experts, who can suspend their own self interest, who can admit to mistakes and redouble efforts to improve, to do anything in a manner that an intelligent, compassionate person does.
iamateacher
(1,089 posts)She would be moved by your tribute.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)Im crying a lot lately. Every person who passes because of this is tearing us all up inside. And thats how we should feel. None of these deaths needed to happen. We have to remember them so this entire Trumpian disaster will never be forgotten. Hugs to you and to her son and family.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,922 posts)Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)Karadeniz
(22,511 posts)Earlier. Trump doesn't care. We care. Deepest sympathy to everyone affected by this loss.
captain queeg
(10,176 posts)Im sorry for your loss. I suspect well be hearing more like this.
MLAA
(17,285 posts)brer cat
(24,560 posts)I'm sure your phone call meant a lot to her son.
My sympathies to you, kind soul, it is indeed a debt that can never be repaid. Each loss is unforgivable.
niyad
(113,275 posts)trof
(54,256 posts)PCIntern
(25,540 posts)She did go out apparently to stores contrary to family wishes, I believe.
JudyM
(29,233 posts)Thank you for sharing a bit of her with us. Some contribute so much to the world, and are gone too soon. I hope she didnt suffer.
LymphocyteLover
(5,643 posts)they normally would with this virus, which could fit here.
Lulu KC
(2,565 posts)My first went a couple of weeks ago. It made it all more real. Trump killed our friends.
All sympathy.
diva77
(7,640 posts)deaths caused by the virus and Dump's negligence.
Demovictory9
(32,449 posts)thank you for sharing
Meowmee
(5,164 posts)She was an amazing person and had more good years left. It made me cry to read this and I agree it is a murder, there is blood on his hands and on everyone who supports him. My neighbor is 91, she recently had brain surgery before this all started and although she still has dementia it improved her overall condition a lot. I am recovering from covid pneumonia at home for 4 weeks now and have not been able to visit her but I can call to talk etc.
gademocrat7
(10,656 posts)to you and your dear friends family.
DFW
(54,363 posts)He is now 92, looks 20 years younger, was one of the marchers at Selma in the 1960s, and is still friends with Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama.
I have known him for well over 60 years, and I'm not 70 yet. I can't imagine him gone.
So I know when you mean when you can't imagine your friend gone. If the virus were to fell my dad's cousin, I think I would instigate a suit for wrongful death, naming Trump as the defendant.