A message from Dino, in memory of Jim...

WHY I HATE PEARL HARBOR DAY

-to my "KOUMBARA", and "sister" Christine Ehrlich; and her most precious daughters Lauren and Dana;
-to all of the Ehrlich and Anderson families in Natick Mass, in Texas, in Hilton Head, in New York, in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and wherever;
and to all of Jim Ehrlich’s friends anywhere who can see this;

Pearl Harbor day was, in the language of FDR, a “Day That Will Live In Infamy”, a day of great pain and darkness for a nation, marking a terrible event we must never forget. We mourned as a nation back in 1941, and we do so until this day, even generations removed.

This day of darkness also marks the 2008 passing of my best and closest friend James Edward “Jim” Ehrlich, the brother I never had; my Columbia University roommate and friend ever since. So, for all of us, this marks another Day That Will Live In Infamy, but for very different reasons.

Oh, how I miss you Jim, you beautiful person. You are simply unforgettable.

You live on in my memory and loom large in my life; not a day goes by without me thinking of you and wanting to share some new thing that happened, which I used to do on our 3 hour phone chats.

For the last three years, I do the sharing in my head when I daydream of you.

Jim, the All-American swimmer (back-stroker), an incredibly intelligent, discreet, serious, yet playfully mischievous person. You were the humblest of leaders, bosses or captain; the finest and most loyal of friends. Anyone who even shared any smidgen of life with you walked away touched, improved, and with an extra spring in their step and a fresh smile on their face.

Pearl Harbor Day, December 7th 1941, brings mourning to millions, but 2008 brings another ominous December 7th, as it marks one of the darkest days in my life, not forgetting also for Jim’s wife and daughters Chris, Lauren and Dana,

December 7th 2008, to me and thousands of others, holds a painful yet wistful grief; this I bring into my private intercessions when I remember you, Jim.

December 7th provides the other half of a painful equation, and I see a great historical symmetry, alas, which only struck me on the day Jim left us in 2008.

What historical symmetry? Back to another World War 2 date: June 6th 1944, which as we know marks the Normandy D-Day invasion, a day on great hope, the beginning of the painful trip that started to draw back lift the veil of Nazi Germany's dark terror towards the Light, towards ending the terrible suffering of that war

It is thus no coincidence that June 6th 1964, is Jim Ehrlich's birthday and that day in Natick, Mass brought forth Jim Ehrlich into this world, in which he lived for 44 years.
Jim’s birth on June 6th 1964 also marks a date of great hope, as it did in 1944.
June 6th 1964, Jim’s first birthday, begat this planet with one of its greatest human beings.

So Dec 7th and June 6th remain dates on which not only tens of millions remember with pain and joy; but also to all of us who has the privileges to be blessed to know and love Jim Ehrlich.

We take these parenthetically symbolic dates and think about the pain and joy they represent in OUR world as Jim's friends.

It almost as if the karmic powers that be wanted the tens of millions to remember Jim in that way.

No wonder: he deserves to be adulated by tens of millions.

I attach a link to the Tribute Blog to Jim; and the note I wrote 3 years ago,

http://tributetojim.blogspot.com/2008/12/roommates.html

… as well as a photo of my wedding in Scottsdale in 2003-- Jim is just behind my left shoulder (look at that happy handsome grin) and my “sister”, his darling wife Christine Anderson-Ehrlich who is just behind my right shoulder.

In all of my mourning, I still keep locked in my heart the fact that he was at my 2003 wedding and witnessed my day of greatest joy, and that he met my the Woman of my Dreams (my wife Maria Houle Soldatos). This joy is muted by the fact that he never got to meet the other Woman of my Dreams (my daughter Eleni), or rather she never will have the joy to have him as an “uncle”; but I take comfort in the idea that he probably can see me from Heaven and witness how happy I am in my life.

-Dino (Dean) Soldatos, Maria Houle Soldatos, Eleni
of Geneva Switzerland, but writing this from Athens, Greece