Uncategorized – Autobiography with musings wordpress Thu, 02 May 2024 15:50:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 Barbara died November 24, 2023 wordpress/barbara-died-november-24-2023/ wordpress/barbara-died-november-24-2023/#respond Thu, 02 May 2024 15:50:51 +0000 wordpress/?p=881 We went to bed Thanksgiving night and everything was fine. At 8:15 in the morning she was on her way to the bathroom and started crying. It soon became obvious that something was very wrong. I called 911. She was collapsing and I had to lower her to the floor, where I’m pretty sure she was soon unconscious. An ambulance arrived and took her to St. Raphael’s, where a brain scan showed a massive brain hemorrhage that could not be fixed. She was then transported to the neurology area at Yale New Haven Hospital, and I followed in my car.

We had talked multiple times about what to do in these circumstances. When I finally got medical staff with to level with me that she was dying and would never have proper brain functioning again, I told them to let her die. I was with her when they removed her oxygen mask, and she was dead within seconds. It was 11:15.

If it had to happen, I’m glad it happened quickly, and that she was almost certainly unconscious nearly the entire 3 hours.

On January 6 (of all dates), Hamden Hall held a memorial for her. They have a web page with many photos, along with a link to a video of the eulogies (over 2 hours long):

https://www.hamdenhall.org/dr-barbara-beitch-memorial?pending=true&cached=false

On a number of occasions, we had promised each other that when one of us died, the survivor would grieve and build a new life. She had the same agreement with Irwin (her husband of nearly 50 years, who died almost as suddenly and for whom she had to pull the plug), or she and I would never have met. I shall be trying hard to keep  my promise.

I have never been loved as she loved me, and have never loved as I loved her.

Perhaps I’ll write more in future, but I’ve been forgetting to post this information, so I’m going to stop for now.

]]> wordpress/barbara-died-november-24-2023/feed/ 0 Race as a social construct and little more wordpress/race-as-a-social-construct-and-little-more/ wordpress/race-as-a-social-construct-and-little-more/#respond Tue, 18 Aug 2020 22:38:27 +0000 Social and political]]> wordpress/?p=699 During the recent rise in attention to racism (some of which makes me hopeful that the topic is getting crucially new understanding, importance and urgency), I’ve often been frustrated by failure to distinguish between race as a biological entity (which I don’t think it is) and a social construct (which I consider a key issue). Here’s a National Geographic essay from 2 1/2 years ago that addresses this distinction: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-genetics-science-africa/

I’m not sure why black-/dark-skinned people continue to be viewed as a “race” when we have advanced past so many similar mis-identifications (Jews, nationalities like the Irish or Italians, etc. etc.). Or maybe I should say that I can figure out the “reasons,” but they boggle the mind.

]]> wordpress/race-as-a-social-construct-and-little-more/feed/ 0