Meneer De Jeung is dood

Meneer De Jeung, in the six months that I knew him, didn't eat anything solid. He had coffee in the morning and the afternoon, and two soups for lunch. In between I would see him with a water glass filling it with some sort of red liquor. He was always loaded. He was grateful that I remembered his two soups and he liked that I got him coffee on command, but he could be a mean s.o.b.

Magna told me today that he had died two days ago. He was 90. It was cancer. She fills me in on all this sort of stuff. It's probalby discussed in some meeting I don't attend.

F's mother had stomach cancer and didn't eat for the last few months. My friend, Jack's, mother did the same. They knew what they were doing. I bet Meneer De Jeung did too. So that's the three. Beerlage, Battike and De Jeung.

For years and years I didn't know anyone who had died. Just my grandparents on my mother's side. Even in NYC it was years and years while some people knew lots of people who had died, I still didn't know anyone. Then a guy I had interviewed for my thesis offed himself - he was dying of AIDS. And guy in my building who I knew a little bit died many years ago. Even with 9-11, I only knew of one guy who I had met years and years ago who died. Then the last year or two it's been a lot of people. Square dancers - Mac McCarthy and another one. F's mother, who I only knew for a few months. Now these people at the nursing home. People I've had regular contact with are gone. Death is strange. It just happens and we move along, or we don't. But my suggestion is to keep moving.