IT’S BEEN A WEEK OF LOSSES:WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE NOT-SO-TOUGH GET WEEDING
It's been a week of losses--two to Alzheimer's and one to an angiogram. Because these have occurred thousands of miles away while I am in Italy, there is an extra aura of unreality about it all. So of course I am out here weeding, as I try to process it a bit. It's the third death that has left many of us feeling blindsided. The senior member of our book group, one of the country's most distinguished physicians and a prolific author, himself, will not be at the next meeting of the book group. My husband described him as a lovable curmudgeon;others in the group refer to "his unique wit and wisdom." Lovably (or by turns, irritatingly) cantankerous and opinionated, Howard was always a brilliant force of nature. I am having a flashback to "The Basileus Quartet," an unforgettable 1984 film that opens with a fiery performance of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden." (I hadn't recalled that it was a Franco-Italian co-production, ...