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!

The Race of the Age

I slept-in, today.  I didn't get up until after 10:30.  That is about four hours later than usual.  I believe it was because yesterday really tired me out!

Yesterday started with my usual 06:30 wake-up, the awkward struggle to get into my T-shirt, jeans, socks and sneakers, replete with foot-brace, and breakfast of oatmeal and a sausage patty.  Then I drove to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) for an 8:30 appointment to have blood drawn at the lab.  DHMC is just over an hour's drive away... and I was there essentially on time, in spite of dense fog on the mountains along Route 118, which runs about 20 miles southward, from Rumney to Canaan, NH. Then, I moved my car around the complex from the Parking Garage to the main parking lot, to shorten my walk to my 9:30 appointment at Dr. Turco's Endocrinology Department.  This was a diabetes visit, entirely unrelated to my strokes.  Dr. Turco is a great man, in my sight.  He has been helping me with my Type II diabetes since 2005, and has brought my A1C test scores from above 10 (dangerously high) to 7.0, which, he told me yesterday, is very good.

After a fine visit with Dr. T., I let the OnStar Navigation System in my new Chevy Equinox guide me to the NH Veterans' Cemetery (NHVC) in Boscawen, where I planned to stand a flag line for a fallen veteran at 2:00 P.M.  Of course, I know well how to find that cemetery, having served as a flag holder at scores of burials over the past 11 years.  But I suspected that OnStar, in choosing the shortest route from Lebanon to Boscawen, might take me through some parts of NH not often, if ever, seen.  In fact, it did just that, guiding me across from I-89 to U.S. 3 via U.S. 4, which is a lovely rural highway over much of that stretch.  I drove past a batch of elegant white buildings in the village of Andover, admiring their bright appearance, then saw that I was passing Proctor Academy, a private boarding and day-school with which two of my sons used to compete in athletics, when they were at Holderness School.

Ariving at NHVC 90 minutes prior to our mission's rendezvous time of 2:00 P.M., I drove on down to have a good lunch at Alan's of Boscawen, just a mile south of the town's center on Rt. 3.

After eating a fried clam strip roll with cole slaw and chips, I took my insulin, went back to NHVC, parked in the shade, and napped for 30 minutes-or-so, awakening at 1:59 (on my phone) to find several fellow NH PGR members also parked there.  As I had been leaned back in my seat, they had not seen me, though Flag Line Captain Lauri Flannery Wayne said, "We noticed that the engine was running, so we figured someone was nearby."

Lauri then led us in a good mission to honor the late Robert R. Rivard, Command Sergeant Major in the U.S. Army National Guard, a veteran of 35 years' service to our country.

Marching away from the grave site, I was again in the lead, with my flag this time in the hands of my comrade, Bruce Beckley.  I used my cane on the deep grass, but once on the pavement, picked it up by its shaft, and strode as normally as I have been able to do yet, at any point since my May 13th "bleeder."  At the NH PGR pickup truck, where we furl our flags, Bruce said to me, "You did well."
That beats the heck out of tripping, falling, and dropping a flag!

After returning home at about 4:00, I showered, then napped for an hour or so, rising to eat a frozen pizza and watch the Red Sox game on TV.

Can't understand how such a day might tire one out!

In my life, these days, the recovery process is in a race with the aging process.  Dear God, Please, may the former process be the winner!

Amazing Grace

Biserica in Piața Unirii, Cluj-Napoca

I've been home from Romania for ten days, and am only now able to tell you the impact that much-needed and truly beautiful vacation has had on me.

While in Cluj, at Hanul Dacilor for dinner with my former dean (now pro-rector of UBB) Mihaela Luțaș and our FSEGA colleagues Alexandra Muțiu (and her daughter Ingrid), Moni Zaharie (and her daughter Anamaria), Monica Silaghi, as well as our former student Raluca Tarcea, Mihaela told me that she was pleased to see that I had returned to Romania with my intellect intact, following my strokes.  What a relief her remark brought to me!

View from our hotel in Bicaz

While in Bucovina with Alexandra, her daughter Ingrid Love, and Ingrid's friend Georgiana, we visited Manastirea Putna, where we met monk Ambrosie, who had read my earlier Putna posts, and had invited me back. While there, we went into the biserica (church) and reviewed the magnificent iconography which had been painted only a few years ago by Master Mihai Moroșan.

With M. Ambrozie

Then, we all spent a wonderful night in Suceava with my dear friends Mihai and Waltraudi Moroșan.  On the drive back to Cluj, Alexandra expressed the thought that she felt her soul to have been healed.  I felt the same.

A 2017 view of Shirley's and my old building, in 2008-09

Back in Cluj, God sent me the realization that the most important decision of my life was to propose marriage to Shirley, back in 1973.  Our four wonderful offspring are one result... but also, how many husbands have the freedom to live such a life as I have been blessed to live?  Dear Shirley is my wife for life.  Praise be to God!

Visit to Romania Upcoming!

Health and other circumstances permitting, I shall be based in Cluj for ten days, starting at the end of August.

Air tickets are bought, and accommodations have been arranged.

God willing, I'll see again many folks whom I dearly love, and sorely miss.

I was able to spend time in Romania, sometimes only days, other years full semesters, in 2008, '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, '14, and '15.  I missed getting there in 2016 due to problems of family health (including my own).  So, I cannot wait to visit Romania, my second homeland, in 2017!