From home, in Campton, New Hampshire, U.S.A.

Dear Reader: Thank you for your friendship, and loyalty to this blog. Please indulge my curiosity by leaving me a comment, which, if nothing else, tells me where you are as you read this post. Thank you! Duncan, Campton, NH

At Peace

 

Shirley and I have been blessed with four offspring, three sons, and a daughter. In 2018 we lost Alexander, who took his own life at age 33. While we knew that Alex had problems, we were shocked by his suicide. Jamie's passing, at 44, has been an entirely different story. Photo is of Jamie with our granddaughter Brynn (8).

After a three-year fight against an aggressive metastatic cancer, Jamie's death was not a surprise. He had fought with courage and determination through several major surgeries, radiation treatments that cost him the sight in his left eye , and chemotherapy. He fought for his wife Amy, and for their three children, Brynn, Killian (6), and Elliott (4). At the end, Jamie passed in his sleep, with his wife, Amy, and sister, Piper, at his bedside. Sleep in peace, dear JJ. We shall love you, forever.

A Joy of Teaching

We teachers make friends younger,
As we are growing old.
Those friends, we find, still love us,
When our story's mostly told.

The Price of a Long Life

Thanks be to God, I have lived for over three-quarters of a century.

While I am thankful for this life, I have just two days ago lost a beloved friend and teacher, and have realized that more such losses are inevitable as I continue to age.  My teachers and mentors are older than I, so I must expect to hear such sad news with increasing frequency.

Professor C. Wickham Skinner of Harvard Business School was my teacher in his second-year course called Manufacturing Policy in my MBA program in 1969. Upon my graduation in 1970, Professor Skinner asked if I would stay at HBS and serve as his research assistant for a year, writing cases for the first-year course in operations management.  When I accepted the job, Wick added that he hoped I would also apply for the DBA program, as there would be no tuition, so long as I was his research assistant.  As it happened, I left after one year, but returned a decade later, and completed my doctoral program in 1986.

Professor Skinner and I shared an understanding of the manufacturing function in industry, an understanding which is all too rare among business school professors.  At the link below, Professor Skinner's many books and articles are listed.  I especially recommend The Focused Factory. 

Wickham Skinner played a pivotal role in my life.  We became close friends, and remained so until his death, two days ago.  He was (at least) 94 years old.

May God rest his soul.

Wick's faculty web page is at this link:

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=12314

A Difficult Year...Still, Craciun Fericit!

At our home in New Hampshire, we have faced emotional trials in 2018.  We know that we are not alone in that, and we offer our sympathy to all who had similar trials or tragedies in 2018.

About this time in 2017 we learned that our oldest son, 42, had been diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer.   Scans done subsequently showed no tumors in his major bodily organs, so reports were that his life was likely not in peril.  Then, in January, they scanned his head, and found a tumor in his cerebellum.  Our beloved son, father of three of our grandchildren, was going in for emergency brain surgery.  Thanks be to God, and to the surgeons at St. Mary's hospital in Richmond, Virginia, that surgery went well, but the tissue tests showed that the tumor was a metastasis of his colon cancer, and his disease was rediagnosed as Stage 4 colon cancer.

Almost all year, our boy has continued to work at his responsible position at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, while undergoing twelve rounds of Chemotherapy.

Then, on August 3rd, I found that our youngest son, 33, had committed suicide.  I shan't go into the details, but it was the worst night of my life.  Shirl and I miss him every day.

All three of our surviving children came to the funeral, the oldest driving up to New Hampshire from Virginia with his wife and three kids, 1, 3, and 5 years of age.  It was good to see that he had the strength to do so.

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Thank God, I can end this saga with some good news.  In November the team of surgeons at St. Mary's did a complete colostomy, from which our son is healing still.  His employers have supported him in his trauma, and seem eager to have him back at work.  Thus far, no further cancer has been indicated by tissue and blood tests.  The latest report just yesterday, is that he is healing well, and will soon be ready to start physical therapy.  Shirl and I haven't been able to go, due to our own health issues, but several family members have rallied to Virginia from Massachusetts, from Vermont, and from Colorado to help support our heroic daughter-in-law in caring for our son and grandchildren during this difficult time.

God be praised!

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So as Christmas approaches, only 6 days away, we offer prayers of thanks for one son's life, and prayers for peace and rest for our departed one, and also for yours.

Merry Christmas! 

May we all have a healthy and happy 2019! 

Amen.

Back to Blogging

This will be a short post to thank my followers and friends for almost ten years of loyalty.  Please forgive any typographical errors in this post, as I am attempting to type it using both my hands.  Thanks to God and Occupational Therapist Pamela Hixon of the Pemi-Baker Community Health Center in Plymouth, NH, my right hand is approaching full functionality 13 months after my crippling "bleeder."

I hope hereafter to keep on blogging for the rest of my life.  That last stroke wiped out a large portion of my memory, and reading those posts that I have been linking into my Facebook page has taught me how important it has been to have recorded my adventures.

If all goes well, I'll be posting far more frequently than I have been for the past year.
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Thanks to my soon-to-be-married daughter, Piper, for sending Omaha Steaks for Father's Day!

Understanding My Age

Last August I turned 74.  That puts me in my "mid-70s."  My life expectancy when born, back in 1943, was 62 years.

I must tell you, dear reader, that I am very thankful to have beaten the forecast, for in the past twelve years a lot of beauty and love and learning and joy have come my way.

Six of my seven grandchildren have been born.  Shirley and I have struggled through some difficult times, but are still together, and in love.

My previous blog, http:/www.dcmcd.blogspot.com was started at the recommendation of my son Jesse, and then this blog became its sequel.  Together, they chronicle my last nine years of travel, teaching in Romania, and other adventures.

When my two strokes came along, the first in September of 2016, and the second in May of 2017, I lost many memories from those recent years, and years before, as well.  Thus, I find these two blogs invaluable records of the places I've been, and the people I've met.

On my recent nine-day visit to Romania, only 3-1/2 months following a "bleeder" in my left frontal lobe, I saw at least ten of the people that I knew from my days living in Romania, back in 2008-2010.  It was great to see them, to hug them, and to recall our friendships.  My blogs played a role in preparing me for some of those meetings.

So today I am writing in my blog at the suggestion of Prof. Dr. Alexandra Muțiu of FSEGA, the Business School of Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 

Dr. Muțiu and I co-taught a course called Accounting for Managers in the spring of 2009.  In a recent chat, she detected what she considered uncharacteristic moodiness in me, which had also been apparent in my Facebook posts.  She suggested that a blog post might prove therapeutic.

What do you know?  Now, as I conclude this post, I am feeling optimistic!  Multumesc, Profesoara!