Dr Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor of the "Last Lecture" fame, passed away on July 25,, 2008, after a brave battle against pancreatic cancer. He was 47.
Live with wonder, he exhorted the audience at his lecture, delivered in September 2007. He told friends and colleagues that he would probably be delivering his lecture to a crowd of no more than 50. Instead, the 400-seat auditorium was packed to capacity. In fact, it was standing room only.
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Note: I wrote this extremely personal essay almost a year ago after a short visit home, more as a release than anything else. It seems appropriate to post it now, on the occasion of Father's Day.
SHORT-TERM MEMORY, LONG-TERM LOVE
“Dad’s starting to forget things,” my mother told me when
she came to visit with my sister last year. “He’ll ask me something, and then ten minutes later, he’ll
ask exactly the same question again. It can get really repetitive.”
Senility was not something I ever thought would afflict my
dad. At least not at 75. In fact, the only other close family
member who suffered from dementia was my maternal grandmother. In her dotage she would forget our
names but recall with impressive clarity episodes from her youth, in the days
before marriage and World War II.
Bedridden, she would keep her money and jewelry hidden under her
mattress and then accuse the nurse of stealing from her. She never forgot, however, that
she was a devout Catholic, and even erected a makeshift altar on top of the
television set in her bedroom in my parents’ house. Vying for altar space with the Virgin Mary, the Infant Jesus
and a vial of holy water from Lourdes was a plastic statue of Mickey Mouse.
Continue reading "My Guy" »