26 June 2012

Richard

Richard has gone. I knew him for forty years and only learnt of his death by accident today while checking out Linkedin. It was a real shock I can tell you.

He was the first American I had ever met and we lived together as the only white people on a remote Fijian island - both teaching in the island's only secondary school. He was a Peace Corps volunteer and I was sponsored by the British equivalent - Voluntary Service Overseas. Previously, I blogged about him here.

A few years later, when I was a student,  I visited him in his family home in Minneapolis. We drove up to the family's self-built cabin on the Canadian border and then later still his company sent him over to England for three years. He came up to Sheffield to see us and we visited him in Datchet near Windsor a couple of times. He married a lovely Korean lady called Yong Sun and they had a son called Adrian. Like Shirley, Yong Sun then suffered a traumatic ectopic pregnancy so there were to be no more children.

We always exchanged Christmas cards and it pleases me greatly that though he never left comments, in the last three years of his life  he followed this blog quite religiously. It amused him and besides he was an engineer and a scientist - he found himself fascinated by people who displayed more literary or artistic energy.

He was very kind and had a dry sense of humour. He attended the universities of North Dakota and Minnesota and in his youth played American college football to a high standard. I don't know why he died. He was only sixty five. He had a twin brother called Roger and a sister called Mary. I shall always remember him fondly and feel very sad that we shan't meet again. Sweet dreams Richard - a true friend of mine... 

Richard J. Mehus
May 19th 1947 - June 13th 2012
R.I.P.

11 comments:

  1. Well, that's very sad. I'm sorry to hear your news YP. I wonder what got him in the end?

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  2. yes, I am sorry too YP
    we are all of that sort of age hen friends start to depart

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  3. How sad. Even though you haven't seen him for so long, news of a sudden death is still a bit of a shock.

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  4. RIP.

    You've mentioned this guy many times in passing.

    We are lucky to meet many good people along the way to share our lives.

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  5. Sad news indeed, but as John points out, we are entering that time of life.

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  6. RIP.

    You've mentioned this guy many times in passing.

    We are lucky to meet many good people along the way to share our lives.

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  7. So sorry for your loss. Your memories of him make him live for the rest of us.

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  8. How sad.....glad you have good memories of him.

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  9. THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR KIND THOUGHTS...

    KATHERINE I am beginning to suspect it was cancer but his twin brother hasn't got back to me yet.
    JOHN GRAY You're probably right. Losing my big brother Paul and now Richard, you sense your mortality.
    JENNY He was someone I just thought would always be there and he'd live to a ripe old age like his parents did.
    SHOOTING Time of life or time of death?
    MR BOOTH And many that we meet we meet by chance, never realising at the time how long and significant the connections might be.
    LIBBY I do have good memories of him and even now I can hear his voice.

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  10. Sad to learn of your loss mate, we have arrived at that stage in life when obituries mean something to us...

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  11. Sad to learn of your loss mate, we have arrived at that stage in life when obituries mean something to us...

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