Half a century have passed

I have received a broadcast email from an alumni guy of a professor at our mother school a couple of days ago. It told me one of the class mates, 69 in total, has died last month and his family didn't hold a funeral ceremony publicly for him due to the pandemic still blazing, even if it was going to be settled. He was 74 years old and was enjoying research work and climbing mountains until last spring. Sadly, even though I still remember who he was, I haven't talked to him in the school days. He was a quiet person who won't belong to any groups spontaneously occurred in the class. So far as I remember of him, he might have graduated from another university before being enrolled in our mother university and possibly has gone to basic medicine laboratory after graduation. I believe he has spent all his life in research work.

I realized it has been half a century since I passed the entrance exam and was enrolled in our mother school. It took me a couple of years to prepare for the exam since starting it at graduation from another college without any accumulation for that. Medicine was one of the most popular specialities those days. This is a photo on the day when the result of the entrance exam was published. In March of 1972. By this time, I have passed an entrance exam of another university in a countryside. I was intending to go there already having lodged an apartment. Unexpectedly, I passed our mother school and would spend med student life there. The entrance exam multiplier was over 40, even though the actual number was over 20. It was impossible for me to imagine I could pass it.

This is a photo taken at the entrance of Dept. Dentistry, why not Med, I don't know. Shabbily dressed, worn even sandals and with messy hairstyle, I was looking far away. This outlook tells that I haven't expected passing the exam at all. I have been there alone and accidentally met a friends of mine from the preparatory school, who told me I had passed it before I saw the display of the exam result. He deprived me of the chance to find the result on the board by myself! I would live in a dorm of the preparatory course in Chiba for a couple of years and then came back to home while being educated at this place in the center of Tokyo. I have become crazy at cello and orchestra. When kidding my mother telling her I would go to a music school quitting medicine, she was seriously worrying about that. Such a doting mother! I can't remember who took this photo. This was the moment when I was destined to spend this life, even though there have been a string of choices in it.  

I should have talked to that guy passing away recently. I would ask him how and what life he has spent and if he was satisfied with it. At our age, we often ask about that even though it won't be given any proper answer at all.  

That email sender classmate told that he would hold a class meeting after absence for a few years due to the pandemic. Before I could not go for such an event, I should attend it to see them and listen how they have lived.