To the Ehrlich and Anderson families:
The last time I saw you all together was at the wedding.
I cannot find the words to express the grief I feel, I am still trying to make sense of all this. I cannot imagine what you must be going through feel. I miss Jim like I miss a family member.
I am Jim's old roommate from college. I am a Greek-American who grew up in Switzerland. I have many pictures of Jim and me together. All of them show a very happy, fulfilled person wearing that big grin of his. I love and will have a big hole in my friendship space in this world.
I had the privilege to speak with Jim for about an hour and a half on the 9th of November. We had a long talk, and spoke about pretty much anything that was going through our minds. (we have done this since college freshman year in 1982, mentally "jazz-riffing" off of each other).
Not easy to say good-bye to a friend. In a cruel frustrating ambivalence, it was both the best, and worst, conversation I ever had with him.
To borrow from another religion, as the Jewish Kaddish ( a kind of "departure" prayer) tries to say, it "expresses love of God and acceptance of God's will, even while the mourner is feeling sorrow over the death of a loved one".
I for one will miss this friend deeply, but he has joined my parents in Heaven. In my Greek-Orthodox Christian religion, we never speak of death, we speak of "falling asleep with God." . The Greek word for sleep is *kemesis* and the place we sleep is a *kemeteryo* ... gives us the word cemetery.
I know that Jim sleeps blissfully. He carries with him the knowledge of the love we all have for him, now and forever, unto the ages of ages.
Sleep, my brother Jim, sleep peacefully.
You have meant so much to me in the last 26 years. I will never forget you in this life, and I know you watch down on all of us from the place you are now.
Dean ("Dino") Soldatos
Switzerland
Below is a picture of Jim and Chris with Dean (in the center), May 2003:
I was a friend of Jim at Columbia College but lost touch with him after he moved back to New England. I just learned of Jim's death yesterday, and I am distressed to know that someone with such a love of life and such a beautiful family has passed too young.
ReplyDeleteI met Jim when I was a Freshman in college and lived on the first floor of Carman Hall. Because we were the only floor without a communal TV, we had to go to the second floor to watch TV. A bunch of swimmers lived on the second floor, and Jim either lived there or visited all the time because that is how I got to know him. (I am pretty sure that he lived on the floor.)
The primary basis of my friendship with Jim was watching music videos, U2s' Sunday Bloody Sunday was big that year, and playing basketball. A bunch of us played basketball all the time. Jim was a great athlete, great basketball player, and fun guy. He was one of those gifted athletes who probably could have been good at any sport that he tried.
Jim was not a snob or cliquish. All of the swimmers were nice guys, but some of them, as with many sports teams, tended to hangout exclusively with their teamates. Jim was not like that at all. He liked to meet everyone and interact with everyone. He made friends across a wide spectrum, and his approach to basketball was similar. He was there to have fun and get a workout, a real free spirit with a great smile and attitude, very charismatic guy.
My condolences to all for your loss. Jim was a one in a billion guy.
Joseph Sullivan
joe.sullivan@yahoo.com