THE DEATH OF CLARA, APRIL 28, 2011
Clara had been in declining health, both mental and physical for more than a year, but I was struck by this fact in the first week of July, 2010, when she was hospitalized after a month long trip to France. The immediate sickness was a leg infection, but the examinations revealed some hippocampus atrophy, serious body edema, hypothyroid, and especially an acceleration of protein malabsorption. When Clara and I were married in 1955, she told me that her doctors had diagnosed the protein problem and were unable to treat it in spite of the danger of the condition. My feeling is that at the age of 80, the protein malabsorption problem had gotten out of control, even though the specialists in Hong Kong had tried to deal with it, and it was the root cause of her death.
After July 2010 Clara’s decline became steep, and even in that month lost the ability to shop for food and to prepare meals. She was to suffer three more hospitalizations focused on her digestive system as well as major surgery for total rectal prolapse. She was bedridden at home for the last 2-3 months of her life with care given by visiting nurses and our helper Melissa Abon. Near the end she could hardly move or think and her body was emaciated. Clara did not suffer much pain, other than that caused by changing the dressings of her wounds (bedsores). She was buried in Hong Kong.
It has been hard for me to write these words. Clara had been a wonderful companion and our relationship has been strengthened by the support of our children Nat and Laura. Even though in this last year, I have experienced periods of extreme sadness, and will have more to come, I expect to continue a full life.
