One of the consequences of aging...
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...is that you keep losing lifelong friends.
We got word a few days ago from the daughter of one of our good friends that he passed away. Wasi and I commuted on the same train every day starting back in the 1980s when Mr wtg and I moved here. We got to know each other because I used to kibitz the bridge game on the train. We would walk several blocks heading home; my car was parked not too far from Peg's and his house. The four of us went out for dinner a few times and we hit it off very well, becoming close friends.
Peg was a phenomenal cook and gardener, and Wasi's barbecued spare ribs were to die for. We explored the cuisines of many cultures together, at their home and ours and at restaurants, eating and drinking and laughing a lot. We lived through Peg's rheumatoid arthritis and knee replacements and Wasi's kidney dialysis, then transplant, and his later in life back problems.
They decided to sell their house in 2014 and move to Madison, WI to be close to their daughter. I actually found the house they ended up buying by looking at listings online! We kept in touch and managed to visit them a few times. When Peggy died some four or five years ago, Monya and Wasi put together a a "book" about her. It was a PDF that chronicled her life in text and photos.
Wasi sold their home and moved to a condo after Peggy died. We talked on the phone but between COVID and Mr wtg's health problems in recent years, we never got to see him again.
Their daughter Monya sent us a card a few days ago announcing his October 2025 passing and inviting us to a celebration of life later this summer. Monya put together a Google Earth slideshow, a link to which was on the card that she sent. It uses maps and Wasi's own photos and remembrances as the basis for walking you through Wasi's life. He was born in Assam to a Muslim family, was orphaned at a young age, moved to East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) as a child after the Partition, went to school in British Columbia, and Madison, WI...and on and on. I knew he was Bangladeshi but had never heard the details of his life story.
I don't know if anyone is interested, but I thought I'd share the link to the slideshow. @big_al , you might be interested in the wanderings of a fellow engineer. He had a PhD in mechanical engineering, was a PE, and worked on nuclear reactors when he was at Sargent and Lundy.
I had a bit of trouble navigating the slideshow on my iPad; it was much better on my laptop. After Google Earth loads, just click on Wasi's Story and start the slideshow.
Wasi loved his martinis:
Here they are sitting on the patio in their backyard.
Goodbye to our friends Wasi and Peg. You will live on in our memories.
...is that you keep losing lifelong friends.
Sad but true.
I don't know if anyone is interested, but I thought I'd share the link to the slideshow. @big_al , you might be interested in the wanderings of a fellow engineer. He had a PhD in mechanical engineering, was a PE, and worked on nuclear reactors when he was at Sargent and Lundy.
I'm glad you shared that slide show. My life and career shared some similarities to Wasi, although I've ended up retired not too far from where I was born; very different from his story.
Big Al
Money seems to buy the most happiness when you give it away.
Why does everything have to be so complicated, all in the name of convenience. -ShiroKuro
A lifetime of experience will change a person. If it doesn't, then you're already dead inside. -MarkJ
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...is that you keep losing lifelong friends.
Sad but true.
I don't know if anyone is interested, but I thought I'd share the link to the slideshow. @big_al , you might be interested in the wanderings of a fellow engineer. He had a PhD in mechanical engineering, was a PE, and worked on nuclear reactors when he was at Sargent and Lundy.
I'm glad you shared that slide show. My life and career shared some similarities to Wasi, although I've ended up retired not too far from where I was born; very different from his story.
Big Al
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It is true that most of us here are entering a phase where life will take more away from us than it gives us. I find that I need to try a bit harder to maintain social connections and work a lot more on health, but I think it is worth it. I hope I can continue. Most of all I hope to die before I have to be placed in a home, unable to do anything that resembles life to me.
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I share Mik's desire to die before having to live a life without a certain quality of life.
Also, I don't want to suffer any protracted, painful treatments regimes for diseases when doing that could only lead to death.
I need to regroup by myself in a healthier environment and with more resources before I will be able to make significantly better health decisions and take significantly better actions accordingly.
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It is true that most of us here are entering a phase where life will take more away from us than it gives us. I find that I need to try a bit harder to maintain social connections and work a lot more on health, but I think it is worth it. I hope I can continue. Most of all I hope to die before I have to be placed in a home, unable to do anything that resembles life to me.
It is true that most of us here are entering a phase where life will take more away from us than it gives us. I find that I need to try a bit harder to maintain social connections and work a lot more on health, but I think it is worth it. I hope I can continue. Most of all I hope to die before I have to be placed in a home, unable to do anything that resembles life to me.
I already have only a handful of living family members left and I'm close to none of them.
Correction: I'm close to one of them, my late aunt's cousin who's in her '80's and lives in Seattle.
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Sounds like Wasi was a great guy!
My condolences.
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Lost one lifelong friend in April and one last week. At a high school reunion in September a list of those that are gone was read. Did not hear my name.
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@andyd I'll take a good decade over a good one and a bad one. My medical power of attorney is complicated AF. I'm going to make sure it's know that I want DNR and no life support. I've had an interesting life. I have no plans to spend years suffering if there's no real point.
As far loss, lifelong friends, since I was 3, since I was in high school, since I was in college, have become estranged over the decades. There's one I'd like to find but haven't had any luck in years.
I have no family except a brother who is a narcissist from hell and has decided for the second time that we will be estranged since there's nothing I have that he can get from me.
I have a cousin who doesn't understand me. I'll put that diplomatically.
I have an aunt in her '80's whom I think the world of, and she's invited me to Seattle, but in will be a year or more before I'll be moved, settled, healed, and in a new rhythm managing my new responsibilities.
The grim reaper cut down almost my entire family without giving me much of a break. Such is life.
Well, we all know what our greatest poet said-- 'Better to have loved and lost than never have loved at all.'
Strangely, I want to be on my own. It's a new adventure.
though we have couple of older cousins and I have an older sister.
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