Thursday, January 24, 2013

Dr. Juan Manuel DeLecuona

Dr. John
I have just returned from Augusta, Georgia, the memorial service for my son-in-law, Juan DeLecuona, my daughter Becky's husband. John was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1961. He and his mother came to the Uited States when he was six years old and settled in Staten Island. John was board certified in both psychiatry and neurology and touched many lives through his work and his life.

John and Becky met when he was a resident at Albert Einshein in the psychiatric emergency room of the North Central Bronx Hospital and she was a social work intern there. They married in June, 1989. The have two children, Lillian Isabel, born February 8, 2000, and Russell Manuel, born February 16, 2004.

Lillie wrote a tribute to her dad which was printed in the service bulletin. She gave me permission to quote some of it here.

"My dad and I had a special relationship. We told each other secrets and our worries. He taught me to see the beauty in everything. He gave me my passions of the arts and especially photography. He didn't smile much but when he talked about me his eyes sparkled and told what he really felt.  It is a relationship that I will never have with anyone else and will never be broken by anything, even death.
Death is a horrible thing. Life is something very precious and shouldn't be taken for granted, even when things look bleak. But he still lives on in our memories and is watching over us, right now, up in heaven playing the banjo."

It was good to celebrate the life of this dedicated man.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

My life is more than what I have done


“Ask me whether what I have done is my life?”

-- from Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer  

I am fascinated with this quote, for we are all so quick to describe our lives in terms of our accomplishments. I am proud of many things that I have done, but they are not all of me.
 
 I have lived in many places making a home for my family.
 
I have raised children, taught children, nurtured children, mine and other people's.
 
I have gone to school, taught school, and taught teachers to teach school.
 
I have learned so much
          and forgotten so much of that.
 
 
Throughout my years in academia I would update my resume each year to assure my superiors and colleagues that I was worthy of my role. I submitted syllabi and evaluations from my students and peers so that committees could decide whether what I had done was worthy of promotion and recognition.
 
Then I retired and I remember thinking that at last I could put all that aside and just be me, not what I have done, but who I am. Now I am blogging to tell the world (and myself) who I am.
     It is a little bit scary.
 
What I have done is a large part of who I am,
       but it is not all.

Keep tuned to find out more about my self-discovery.
        Follow my blog and you may learn more about me- and about yourself  -in the process.