[Rhodes22-list] Gone West

[R22RumRunner at aol.com]

Brad,
Sorry to hear about your father in law. 78 is still very young these days.  
Why the 2 x 4 off the stern?
 
Rummy
 
 
In a message dated 7/28/2008 7:02:35 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
flybrad at gmail.com writes:

The  phone rang around midnight last night (noon Beijing time) and my  first
thought was, "this can't be good".  My older boys are finally  well
established in their responsible young adulthood period so my next  thought
was "parents".  Fan's father got up from the breakfast table,  said he didn't
feel well and was going to lie down for a nap.  He  never woke up.

Mr. Shen was an interesting man.  He was born into  a prosperous family that
had their wealth confiscated after the civil war  ended in 49'.  He and his
wife were both mechanical engineers and he  was well respected as an engineer
and manager of several different  factories. During the Cultural Revolution,
he was stripped of his job and  title and the associated privileges, but
later partially re-instated  because even idealistic revolutionaries need
people who "know how to make  things work". Throat cancer at the age of four
and the resulting surgery  robbed him of the ability to speak louder than a
whisper.  When he  spoke, people somehow knew it was worth the extra effort
to listen  carefully.

While living with us, he quickly became Gracie's best  friend.  She couldn't
wait for the first walk of the day and would  quietly wait for him to
practice his Tai Chee excercises. I was still a  Rhodes 22 owner then and he
and I built a cradle for the boat in the back  yard.  His English was on par
with my Mandarin, non-existent, but with  patience and pictures and lot's of
hand gestures, we usually got our points  across to each other.  On a later
visit I taught him how to drive (in  a parking lot) and how to sail,  flying
was next on the agenda.   He loved to share with his peers back home all the
new skills he'd  learned.

Attached is a photo of Mr. Shen on his grand daughter's  sailboat. He was 78
this year.

Brad
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