11/03/2015

Living the last days of life

The higher bands are still in good shape. Fifteen meters has opened to the East Coast this morning. A good friend of mine, Alan, W2MV, has called me. A bit echo on signal but still solid. It sounded fluttery, which is typical for the path in fall.

Talking about how to spend the Thanks Giving holidays, he let me know he would have a dinner with his brother in law's father in New Jersey. That person has been diagnosed as gastric cancer in terminal stage. Since he is now in his 80s, he denied to take chemo. Alan was sad to see and take dinner together with him, as he said.

That person was born in Belgium and has spent hard time for 4 years at a house hidden from Nazis while his parents were killed by them. His bio is here.  What a dramatic life he has spent! Thinking of his life, Alan must be in the fullness of his heart for him and could not see him in such a situation with peace in Alan's mind.

I fully understood what he felt about that event. It might have been good enough for me just to listen what he felt about it. I dared to say about that guy as follows.  

There are different ways to die. Cancer takes some time and often accompanies pain and anxiety since the condition worsens gradually. Don't worry about that so much. Highly progressed terminal care would help him a lot. It was a good choice for him not to take chemo. Together with terminal care, he might spend the last days with better quality of life than receiving chemo. The terminal care may minimize his pain and agony. He could spend peaceful time left with his folks. In another words, he would spend the last days for the people around him being left in this world. So I hope Alan to see him just as always. Enjoy the time together with him and folks as always. It is the time prepared for you to be together with him. It is a gift from him to the people around him.

Alan turns to be 60 years of age next week. I welcomed him to brilliant 60s of life and also sent him very happy birthday in advance. He and his wife would spend his birthday in UK. Also wishing him a very pleasant trip.

Sharing life through ham radio is not bad, is it?

7 comments:

  1. Hi, Shin - saw you spotted on 7026 this am, connected to remote station and turned beam towards you. You were about 339 here, probably without spotting would have never noticed you! I tried calling at 100w (the amp was not on at remote station) but you did not hear me. A DS1 station further down the band was even lower, wasn't hearing me or other calling either - conditions not so good, no matter what all those skimmers on the RBN say!

    73 John K3TN

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John,

      I thought I had heard a weak signal which was covered by the OTH radar and was not readable last night. It may get better in some time. See you then.

      Shin

      Delete
  2. Good night Shin! This is Luciano Gasparini PT9KK in western Brazil. We had a brief CW contact on 40m yesterday. My qsl card to you is on the way to Japan. You should have it in two weeks. It would be quite good to receive yours as I have never worked Japan on 40m on CW. I do hope you like the picture and postcard, as well. 73 Luciano

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good night Shin! This is Luciano Gasparini PT9KK in western Brazil. We had a brief CW contact on 40m yesterday. My qsl card to you is on the way to Japan. You should have it in two weeks. It would be quite good to receive yours as I have never worked Japan on 40m on CW. I do hope you like the picture and postcard, as well. 73 Luciano

    ReplyDelete
  4. I would like to seize the opportunity to apologize. I haven't had enough time to practice CW lately thus I had lots of faults. Secondly, although you were quite strong in Brazil, I had lots of static crashes due to the heavy rain we had since last week. I wish we could extend our QSO. On the other hand, I was quite happy to learn you are a pediatrician. My father was a pediatrician and passed away three years ago due to lung cancer. 73, Luciano PT9KK

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Luk,

      I am honored to be your 1st JA on 40m. The band is often open to PY from here around that time. Your signal was coming through very nicely. We might have many chances to meet on the air. If necessary, I am ready to slow down a bit. It is mid autumn here with very low static noise while the band must be noisy there. Let's have another QSO soon. Let me know of your father in the QSO. I am a retired pediatrician and am now a perfect house husband!

      Shin

      Delete
  5. Shin,
    thanks for your reply.
    I have been married with an anesthesiologist whose ancestors were born in Sendai and Yamaguchi. Both of my daughters love Japanese food including sushi and gohan rice with furikaki. I'm in Rio de Janeiro right now but will be back to my hometown next Friday night local time (UTC -3). I appreciate if you QRS as it makes alot easier for me to copy your signals under heavy static crashes. I haven't found your email address. You can email me if you want. I'm all right at QRZ.com 73, Luciano

    ReplyDelete