Memoriam

I started this one almost 2 months ago....please bear with me and my indolence.

The last couple of  weeks seem to be bad weeks for anything piano related in my inner circle. Last Friday, the teacher of a few of my close friends’ kids passed away. Early thirties, we think an accidental overdose. He was very very good with the children and as my friend said, has accumulated enough good karma that he probably waltzed into heaven. Well, he’s Catholic, so I think that’s what happened?
Anyway, we had barely recovered from that news, when my older kid’s piano teacher texted me that she needed to take more time to reschedule his classes because she was tending to her husband who was in the hospital. He had been ailing for a while. We’ve known him for the eight years Emmanuel has been her student and he joshes around with Emmanuel all the time. Even last week he was teasing him about not driving into his garage like another student did a few years back. He was in his early seventies. But a very active man. A veteran. Brisk, busy. He installed a storm door in his house and I used to quiz him about how it worked all the time because he seemed to be tinkering with it often.He did all the handy work around the house and was very good at it. Last year he had to have an operation for some persistent health problem and his doctors had mentioned that it wasn’t a cure, but more of a ‘prolonging his life a little bit’thing.
We had gone to India for a while last year and when we got back and resumed classes, we were in for a shock.Gone was the energetic Wayne. He was replaced by a really sick person. He used to be sitting at his home PC terminal when I dropped my kid off-that was like his throne. But now it was more common to find him curled up on the sofa, obviously in pain, dull, lethargic and listless. There were days when I would avert my eyes so he couldn’t see the shock registered in my eyes at his deterioration. He would make small talk in a low voice and recede into the couch. He lost weight, started looking his age and in general, it was painful to see him like that. His wife ,mentioned that he was in so much pain that morphine wasn’t even helping a bit.
And last Tuesday, we heard that he had passed away. As much as this was expected news, it still was shocking. It was a sweet release for him, but painful for those he left behind.
We attended his funeral yesterday. More like a service. Since he was a veteran, he is interred at the National Cemetry here and the ceremony was very sobering. The three gun salute, the  taps, the flag being presented to his widow...a reminder of all the men and women who risk life and limb for the country.
His wife was mentioning how he always was taken care of at the VA hospital, but the last time, they were short of beds and he was sent to a private hospital. This was over the Memorial day weekend. She said, the doctors and nurses at this hospital, fawned over him so much and treated him so well and that the room was so much more comfortable and spacious and that his last few days were spent watching football with his son and listening to music. The VA hospital was never that comfortable or easy to stay in and she felt that his last days were some much better because he stayed at the private place. The unfairness of it all struck me. Here was a veteran, someone who had risked his life to keep ours safe and a hospital dedicated to veterans like him did not have the wherewithal to treat them as well as a private hospital would ? Where is our indignation?  The kerfuffle over such hospitals has been in the limelight time and again, but nothing substantial has been achieved isn't it? While people are at each others throats about a wall, where is the response to such blatant inefficiency?

Considering the chaos at the top in this country, this one might take a while.But I am, I confess, selfishly happy he was well taken care of in his last days.

RIP Wayne. Manny is going to keep his tattered piano stool just the way it is because you were the last one who replaced the fabric on it. We have your swivel chair. Manny says it is his 'feel good' place!
We miss you, but now that you are pain free and at peace, enjoy it everlastingly!