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Requiem for a Giant, part I

Started by The Good Reverend Roger, May 05, 2011, 05:24:31 PM

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The Good Reverend Roger

May 05, 2011, 05:24:31 PM
When I landed in Buffalo, there was a blizzard going on.  Bear in mind that this was late April...But I was going to Hamilton to bury the Terrible Old Man, and Hamilton respects this.  It would be suitable gray, cold, and drizzling, regardless of the actual season.  Funerals are for fall, and the Northeast was accommodating.

My father picked me up at the airport, and took me across the border.  On the trip, I saw the most depressing thing I'd seen in ages...They built skyscrapers next to Niagara Falls.  I am sure this gives a good view to the people with offices on the 60th floor, but if you're on the ground, it makes the falls look like a merely large sewer drain.

During the drive, my father told me the "Alice" story...Alice was my grandfather's dancing partner for a couple of months, and she had views on modern medicine.  She had attempted to get the Terrible Old Man's IV antibiotics removed while there was still a reasonable chance that he'd pull through.  Needless to say, the hospital wasn't going to listen to a non-relative, and she wound up being banned from the ward.  Creepy.

We arrived at the hospital at about 8PM, and I had a half hour to talk to the Terrible Old Man before he fell asleep.  Talk at him is more like it...He was conscious, but not capable of any real speech.  A few words, and he'd be worn out.  Bear in mind that, by this time, he'd been 3 days without functioning kidneys, and had not had anything to eat or drink.  He looked like an inmate at Auschwitz.

(Interesting note:  His room in the ward was 100 yards from the room in which he was born, and 75 yards from the Sherman Cut, a road down the mountainside that he helped build - his very first job - in 1920 or so.)

By the time I got to the hospital the next day, he was comatose.

That night, I stood watch over him.  The nurse made me sign for his last morphine shot, as she was more than halfway convinced that the shot would kill him (no kidney function means morphine doesn't process for shit, which means the dose was steadily climbing).  Since there was no coming back for him, and since I didn't know if he was still in there and able to feel pain, I elected to sign for the shot.

All night long, he would take 3 breaths, then stop for 10 seconds, then right when I was ready to shit myself, he'd take another 3 breaths.  It was pretty nerve-wracking.  By this point, his eyes weren't tracking, indicating that there was no higher brain function.  I was utterly exhausted by the stress when my uncle came in to take over, and I fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.

The next morning, I had this dream of him looking hale again, riding a gurney with the back raised to a sitting position.  He rolled past me in the hospital corridor, with nobody pushing the gurney.  He just looked at me while he rolled past, with his usual straight face (For my whole life, I could never tell what he was thinking unless he spoke up).

I woke up a little agitated, and asked my father for any news...And he said "No change."

The Terrible Old Man died 2 hours later.

Eulogy to follow tonight.  I have held off, because there are some AMAZING pictures we found in his personal effects, one of which describes his entire personality.

Or Kill Me.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Suu

#1
May 05, 2011, 05:30:34 PM
Man...
Sovereign Episkopos-Princess Kaousuu; Esq., Battle Nun, Bene Gesserit.
Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion; 1st Church of Discordia

"Add a dab of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you're laughing at it."

LMNO

#2
May 05, 2011, 05:31:37 PM
Roger, if you make me cry at work.... 



Aw, fuck it.  Keep it coming.

Richter

#3
May 05, 2011, 05:32:03 PM
wow
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on May 22, 2015, 03:00:53 AM
Anyone ever think about how Richter inhabits the same reality as you and just scream and scream and scream, but in a good way?   :lulz:

Friendly Neighborhood Mentat

hooplala

#4
May 05, 2011, 05:39:18 PM
Roger, my deepest sympathies and utmost respect.
"Soon all of us will have special names" — Professor Brian O'Blivion

"Now's not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns." — Bob Dylan?

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)" — Walt Whitman

Jasper

#5
May 05, 2011, 05:40:57 PM
I'm speechless.

What Hoopla said.

Eater of Clowns

#6
May 05, 2011, 05:45:22 PM
A simple and powerful tribute.
Quote from: Pippa Twiddleton on December 22, 2012, 01:06:36 AM
EoC, you are the bane of my existence.

Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on March 07, 2014, 01:18:23 AM
EoC doesn't make creepy.

EoC makes creepy worse.

Quote
the afflicted persons get hold of and consume carrots even in socially quite unacceptable situations.

The Good Reverend Roger

#7
May 05, 2011, 05:52:56 PM
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on May 05, 2011, 05:45:22 PM
A simple and powerful tribute.

Well, I plan to write a more appropriate eulogy, with some amazing pictures, later on tonight or possibly tomorrow night.  The Terrible Old Man was one of those guys that left the world in far better shape than he found it.

" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Luna

#8
May 05, 2011, 05:59:56 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 05, 2011, 05:52:56 PM

The Terrible Old Man was one of those guys that left the world in far better shape than he found it.


That, right there, is a hell of a eulogy, all on its own.
Death-dealing hormone freak of deliciousness
Pagan-Stomping Valkyrie of the Interbutts™
Rampaging Slayer of Shit-Fountain Habitues

"My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know, everybody you see, everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake, and they live in a state of constant, total amazement."

Quote from: The Payne on November 16, 2011, 07:08:55 PM
If Luna was a furry, she'd sex humans and scream "BEASTIALITY!" at the top of her lungs at inopportune times.

Quote from: Nigel on March 24, 2011, 01:54:48 AM
I like the Luna one. She is a good one.

Quote
"Stop talking to yourself.  You don't like you any better than anyone else who knows you."

Adios

#9
May 05, 2011, 06:00:31 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 05, 2011, 05:52:56 PM
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on May 05, 2011, 05:45:22 PM
A simple and powerful tribute.

Well, I plan to write a more appropriate eulogy, with some amazing pictures, later on tonight or possibly tomorrow night.  The Terrible Old Man was one of those guys that left the world in far better shape than he found it.



I look forward to that.

hooplala

#10
May 05, 2011, 06:00:49 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 05, 2011, 05:52:56 PM
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on May 05, 2011, 05:45:22 PM
A simple and powerful tribute.

Well, I plan to write a more appropriate eulogy, with some amazing pictures, later on tonight or possibly tomorrow night.  The Terrible Old Man was one of those guys that left the world in far better shape than he found it.



A quality steadily becoming rarer and rarer.
"Soon all of us will have special names" — Professor Brian O'Blivion

"Now's not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns." — Bob Dylan?

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)" — Walt Whitman

Triple Zero

#11
May 05, 2011, 06:20:59 PM
I don't know what to say.

A few years ago, I visited a very good friend the day before he died (throat cancer, he was in his 60s), skinny like your Auschwitz inmate description, he wasn't really there anymore, nodding off, his skin was yellow--I forget why--next day I got a call he passed away. Your story is very different of course, it was in a hospital and he was your family, and I didn't stand watch over him or anything. This brought back those sad memories. I wish I could write it down like you did.
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

#12
May 05, 2011, 06:28:31 PM
Weeping.

The part about him on the gurney, hale...
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."

The Good Reverend Roger

#13
May 05, 2011, 06:31:29 PM
Quote from: Nigel on May 05, 2011, 06:28:31 PM
Weeping.

The part about him on the gurney, hale...

My mother is absolutely convinced that was some sort of psychic thing.  I think it's far more likely that I knew he was dying, and my brain barfed that up...After all, he was still alive when I had the dream, and when you're in a high-stress situation, that sort of thing happens.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.

#14
May 05, 2011, 07:11:02 PM
Quote from: Hoopla on May 05, 2011, 06:00:49 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 05, 2011, 05:52:56 PM
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on May 05, 2011, 05:45:22 PM
A simple and powerful tribute.

Well, I plan to write a more appropriate eulogy, with some amazing pictures, later on tonight or possibly tomorrow night.  The Terrible Old Man was one of those guys that left the world in far better shape than he found it.



A quality steadily becoming rarer and rarer.

Truth.
Weevil-Infested Badfun Wrongsex Referee From The 9th Earth
Slick and Deranged Wombat of Manhood Questioning
Hulking Dormouse of Lust and DESPAIR™
Gatling Geyser of Rainbow AIDS

"The only way we can ever change anything is to look in the mirror and find no enemy." - Akala  'Find No Enemy'.
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