MY LIFE: Part 3F: Gratitude....Not Grief

A beautiful day in Honolulu, and life is wonderful.  My view as I compose this posting.

If you have been with me recently, I'm into a series called MY LIFE, now in Part 3, my retirement years.  Coincidentally, I'm in the middle of Pearl's Ashes, ceremonies I performed at the Taj Mahal (to be 3G), Machu Picchu and other global sites.

Why this specific topic today is that I was looking at these now blooming African Blood Lilies, and thought back to this day, July 19, which also happened to fall on Sunday...Pearl's final day.

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  She was perfectly healthy until around mid-June of 2019, when she appeared somewhat exhausted.  Her doctor recommended that she go to Kuakini Hospital to get a small series of tests.  For some reason, they gave her an anti-biotic injection, and that led to her body overreacting.  So she was told to stay overnight for observation.

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  This led to her in a few days being sent into intensive care, and placed on sedation, using propofol.  I recall reading about Michael Jackson being on this same drug.  While all this was happening, he died on 25June2009.  It was later revealed that the most probable cause of death was from propofol.

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  From a previous posting:

Regarding Pearl's fatal period, a month into her ordeal, I received a bill just from the hospital in the neighborhood of a quarter million dollars.  The thought of her being on a ventilator for another few months, if not years, tormented me.  Not only was she suffering, but her family and I seemed to be declining, physically, but more psychologically.

I had purchased a bottle of Dom Perignon for her return, and actually obtained a Casio electronic keyboard to surprise her with a recital.  Well, I started with page one, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," but after a couple of weeks, just could not learn it.  So I went to page 88 and tried Pachelbel's "Cannon in D."  I had even more difficulty.   I've always wanted to instead get a keyboard with sets of rainbow colored keys, which would light up when I am supposed to press it, to accelerate the learning process.  Well, I haven't yet seen colored keys, but I noticed that Casio now sells keyboards with keys that do light up...for $260, which is about the price of one of my extravagant lunches, or a typical hotel bill for one night.

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  For the record, from another posting.

I more recently in AGT2017 saw Jokgu (a chicken) playing America the Beautiful on a piano.  So I made a quick search to see how this was accomplished.  There was a clip of this chicken playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and the secret was that the keys lit up when they had to be tapped.  

I have a special and sad memory linked to that tune and a keyboard, which underscores my particular dedication to overcome.  I thought, I could do what Jokgu did, so the next day went online and bought a 61-key Electronic Keyboard, which comes with 128+ instruments and 4000 programmed songs (where the keys light up).  Let's see, now, two years later, and I still can't perfectly play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  A common joke at 15 Craigside is that someday I'll put on a theater recital.

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  Back to my topic of today, it was also a Sunday, and Pearl passed away.  I recall holding her hands...a final grip...then death.
• I returned from the hospital at around 11AM on Sunday, 19July2009.  This was one of those rare days when I did not post a blog.  However, I was able to submit an article to the Huffington Post with the title Gratitude....Not Grief.
• From yet another posting:

2009 was the worst year of my life.  I spent a little more than a month visiting my wife who was in intensive care.  I remember being given an invoice showing a bill of $250,000 for hospital costs.  Just the hopelessness and her condition were bad enough, but what if this went on for, say, six months?  If only a 10% co-share, that would be $150,000.  She did pass away a few days later, and I remember walking home that Sunday.  I wrote Gratitude...Not Grief, borrowing from Thornton Wilder, which The Huffington Post published the next day.  It ended with:

Anyway, life begins again for me, and do feel refreshed. Please join me in thanking Pearl for making our lives so much better. She would want me to end on a positive note, so I again quote Thornton Wilder:

"The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude."

• I did finish that bottle of Dom Perignon, all by myself.
• My blog of 20July2009.

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