Thank you Barbara, 'larger than life' is an excellent way to put it. And yes, his family has been there for him every step of the way, especially my SiL. It was especially sad that he couldn't make my daughter's wedding a year ago but the chemo was what he felt he needed to do, and it took a hard toll on him.
I'm thinking everyone should have a guitar-playing Sasquatch ghost to blame things on! Already today when I went back for my phone, only to find it on the passenger seat all along, I could just shake my head and say, 'Got me again!' It's changed my whole attitude.
Re: I'm thinking everyone should have a guitar-playing Sasquatch ghost to blame things on! That's what the old mythological gods did for humans. You could always blame things on them! A guitar playing Sasquatch works too.
Thank you for this beautiful celebration of a life, Tereza. I'm grateful that you could find humour amidst the tragedy. My elderly father's death a couple of years ago was not tragic. It was sad but timely. He had written wonderful self-effacing and life-affirming memoirs that I was able to read to him over his final year as he faded, and I was there as he died. I do see him in the bush of Australia and the surf he loved. The death of a young person, however, is awful, and in this case probably not natural or timely. Blessings to you and your family.
'Self-effacing and life-affirming', what a great combo! I'm glad that you can see him in the bush and the surf. And how nice to get to read someone back to themselves. That sounds like a lovely relationship you had with your dad.
Thank you, Ginger. It's a delicate balance, knowing and not judging, that I know you walk all the time. I go back to your initial statements on why you didn't agree with Desmet. You put it beautifully that people had been traumatized and manipulated, even when they seem sure of themselves. At the dinner we had just before his diagnosis, I talked about the vaccines and Luis listened--not something he was known for. Maybe because we hadn't seen each other for years, maybe because my youngest daughter has a way of bridging people. It was a week later that he found out. There was something about the timing that just seemed eerie. I don't know how and why things work out the way they do, but I'll be forever grateful that I got that moment of connection at a time when all these things were just theoretical.
No more timely for you than for all of us, Tonika. We're going through this experience as a whole. What happens is what needs to happen for the past, in order to change things for the future. Nothing that happens is predictive, just the opposite.
Hi, Tonika. I'm not sure that's what I meant. I'm thinking more on the spiritual plane that everything that happens in the past changes the future. Either my BiL's death was meaningless and a random roll of the genetic dice, or it was part of something that's leading us into a world that would otherwise have taken generations to get to. It feels like everything is sped up right now. I'm not sure we can take lessons from the past because everything's changing so quickly. Not sure if that makes sense.
I am sorry to hear, Tereza. I heard your very important thought about how we do not know what part we may be giving- or recieving in this life. Everything in my life experience has so far shown me endless surprising, utterly impossible, sometimes delightful sometimes heartwrenching examples of how we are all inextricably interwoven in the most profound and complex of ways. From your words I shed tears for a being I never knew but recognize and feel immediately as an old and dear friend. Thank you for sharing this beautiful tribute, I needed to see this today.
That is a great way to put it, "we do not know what part we may be giving- or receiving in this life." I think every culture has a version of that story that 'it's too soon to tell' whether something is good or bad. I choose to believe that things are neither, but are necessary, otherwise they wouldn't happen. Instead of looking at what happens, I look at the timing.
It was such an odd and accidental thing that I saw him--for the first time in years, since the divorce--on his way back from a water polo tournament. My daughter and I had dinner with him and it was the best conversation I think we ever had. To say he was opinionated is to put it mildly, but he'd mellowed and was happier than I'd ever seen him--except for a small but persistent pain in his back. It was only a week later he found out.
It feels like there are threads, inextricably interwoven, as you say. If this had to happen, getting that one moment to re-establish a relationship before the sh*t hit the fan, so to speak, was a gift whether from luck or from fate.
Thank you Tereza, for sharing that beautiful, wide-eyed tribute to Luis.
Just minutes ago, I received a F.B. message saying my cousin had died, one that I remember from only up until my early undergrad days. I still have an unopened box of photographs beside my bed, those and memories ... all that's remains of my mother. And not. She too, like we all, will be added to that detritus of life.
I could feel some consolation and kindredship in that we have an affinity for what was intuited by the likes of Spinoza, Emerson, and Einstein. Nothing lost, nothing gained. Just bits of existential foam popping in and out of the detritus. Ha. Making the detritus.
I never thought of myself as a Marxist, but he put it in such a funny way ...
Wow, that made me so sad. I cried so hard. I guess it was just time for me to have a good cry. Music and Italian food sounds like my husband. That was a beautiful tribute to Luis. Please accept my condolence for your loss.
I'm so touched, Helene, that you were so touched by it. I suspect your husband also shares a sense of humor. Give him an extra hug, just as a kindred spirit to Luis. We need all the hugs we can get.
Oh Tereza, I'm so sorry about Luis. I loved getting to know him through your writing -- what a vivid picture you paint of a larger-than-life personality! Of course someone like that would still be needling you from the great beyond...
My love and blessings to you and your family. ā¤ļø
Thank you, Mary. You put it perfectly as a larger-than-life personality. Some have called him lovable but that would be very reductive for him. He took pride in his ability to argue with you about anything--didn't matter how he actually felt about it. I remember him, 20 yrs ago, saying that he would definitely have a boy as we hung out on a playground with my three daughters. Then saying, "No way my daughter's going to wear makeup" as she became the guru on dramatic eyes and multiple hair colors. She's taking the semester off and she and her mom are going to travel to Italy, and take some of his ashes. He played water polo and modeled there in his heyday, a Colombian with long flowing hair and a killer grin. So it's a whole new relationship for the two of them, and I'm glad for that.
Thanks for all you're doing and writing. Great articles/information.
Condolences on the loss of Luis. His "larger than life" Spirit is a message to us all, and he'll continue to live in all of us.
For all your readers/members, have you heard of Fenbendazole (aka: Horse Paste from Covid)?
Another Substack writer (FenBen) has taken to writing about this cancer treating product, and is sharing all of its applications and successes with patients (including canines).
I offer this to you, to consider, review, and if you're interested, to share with your readers.
As one Commenter stated (below) "cancer is the new epidemic".
It doesn't need to be.
I hope you find the information helpful, not just for you, but for all those that are staring down all the cancers that have "suddenly" presented.
Here's a few of the cancer "cures" that he addresses: Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Stage III, Bladder, Colon, Metastatic Prostatic Adenocarcinoma, Rectal, Inoperable Metastatic Esophageal Adenocarcinoma, Plasmacytoid Urothelial Cancer, etc., etc., etc.
Thanks Greg. There are some people doing some great work in this. Catherine Austin Fitts has said that people would rather die than look in the mirror and say, I've been a patsy. That's been my experience. Either people are already in our anti-vaxxer camp and knowledgable about the alternative treatments, or they'd have to start by admitting they chose something that might kill them. It's such a diabolical plan. But I'll forward your info where it might be heard.
So sorry for your loss, Tereza.
"Grief is the price we pay for love."
šš»
Beautiful bittersweet post, Tereza. Luis sounds like he was larger than life and it sounds like his family helped him pass on in peace. Iām certain his Spirit will still be making you laugh. So sorry for your loss. š©·
Thank you Barbara, 'larger than life' is an excellent way to put it. And yes, his family has been there for him every step of the way, especially my SiL. It was especially sad that he couldn't make my daughter's wedding a year ago but the chemo was what he felt he needed to do, and it took a hard toll on him.
I'm thinking everyone should have a guitar-playing Sasquatch ghost to blame things on! Already today when I went back for my phone, only to find it on the passenger seat all along, I could just shake my head and say, 'Got me again!' It's changed my whole attitude.
Re: I'm thinking everyone should have a guitar-playing Sasquatch ghost to blame things on! That's what the old mythological gods did for humans. You could always blame things on them! A guitar playing Sasquatch works too.
Iām so sorry š. My Aunt came back as this Black & Orange bird. I saw her in Miami a few weeks after she passed. It was amazing š¤©
Thank you for this beautiful celebration of a life, Tereza. I'm grateful that you could find humour amidst the tragedy. My elderly father's death a couple of years ago was not tragic. It was sad but timely. He had written wonderful self-effacing and life-affirming memoirs that I was able to read to him over his final year as he faded, and I was there as he died. I do see him in the bush of Australia and the surf he loved. The death of a young person, however, is awful, and in this case probably not natural or timely. Blessings to you and your family.
'Self-effacing and life-affirming', what a great combo! I'm glad that you can see him in the bush and the surf. And how nice to get to read someone back to themselves. That sounds like a lovely relationship you had with your dad.
Dear Tereza, Oh, I am so sorry about Luiz' death. Thank you for your thoughtful and thought provoking thoughts about life and death.
As you have said: Life is precious and precarious.
Love, Ginger
Thank you, Ginger. It's a delicate balance, knowing and not judging, that I know you walk all the time. I go back to your initial statements on why you didn't agree with Desmet. You put it beautifully that people had been traumatized and manipulated, even when they seem sure of themselves. At the dinner we had just before his diagnosis, I talked about the vaccines and Luis listened--not something he was known for. Maybe because we hadn't seen each other for years, maybe because my youngest daughter has a way of bridging people. It was a week later that he found out. There was something about the timing that just seemed eerie. I don't know how and why things work out the way they do, but I'll be forever grateful that I got that moment of connection at a time when all these things were just theoretical.
I'm so glad that you had the grace of that moment of connection, Tereza. ā¤ļø~ Ginger
Pretty timely read for me, thank you. Hereās to not taking ourselves too seriously! š„
No more timely for you than for all of us, Tonika. We're going through this experience as a whole. What happens is what needs to happen for the past, in order to change things for the future. Nothing that happens is predictive, just the opposite.
Hmmm. I have to chew on that. Thanks.
Fixing the generational wound fixes the trauma pattern?
Hi, Tonika. I'm not sure that's what I meant. I'm thinking more on the spiritual plane that everything that happens in the past changes the future. Either my BiL's death was meaningless and a random roll of the genetic dice, or it was part of something that's leading us into a world that would otherwise have taken generations to get to. It feels like everything is sped up right now. I'm not sure we can take lessons from the past because everything's changing so quickly. Not sure if that makes sense.
Ah. Thanks for the additional explanation. I had misunderstood.
I am sorry to hear, Tereza. I heard your very important thought about how we do not know what part we may be giving- or recieving in this life. Everything in my life experience has so far shown me endless surprising, utterly impossible, sometimes delightful sometimes heartwrenching examples of how we are all inextricably interwoven in the most profound and complex of ways. From your words I shed tears for a being I never knew but recognize and feel immediately as an old and dear friend. Thank you for sharing this beautiful tribute, I needed to see this today.
That is a great way to put it, "we do not know what part we may be giving- or receiving in this life." I think every culture has a version of that story that 'it's too soon to tell' whether something is good or bad. I choose to believe that things are neither, but are necessary, otherwise they wouldn't happen. Instead of looking at what happens, I look at the timing.
It was such an odd and accidental thing that I saw him--for the first time in years, since the divorce--on his way back from a water polo tournament. My daughter and I had dinner with him and it was the best conversation I think we ever had. To say he was opinionated is to put it mildly, but he'd mellowed and was happier than I'd ever seen him--except for a small but persistent pain in his back. It was only a week later he found out.
It feels like there are threads, inextricably interwoven, as you say. If this had to happen, getting that one moment to re-establish a relationship before the sh*t hit the fan, so to speak, was a gift whether from luck or from fate.
Thank you Tereza, for sharing that beautiful, wide-eyed tribute to Luis.
Just minutes ago, I received a F.B. message saying my cousin had died, one that I remember from only up until my early undergrad days. I still have an unopened box of photographs beside my bed, those and memories ... all that's remains of my mother. And not. She too, like we all, will be added to that detritus of life.
I could feel some consolation and kindredship in that we have an affinity for what was intuited by the likes of Spinoza, Emerson, and Einstein. Nothing lost, nothing gained. Just bits of existential foam popping in and out of the detritus. Ha. Making the detritus.
I never thought of myself as a Marxist, but he put it in such a funny way ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YrNQaXdOxU
Thanks again Tereza
Haha, that's my kind of Marxist, the Groucho type!
I'm glad my bit of existential fluff collided with yours, Steve. You make my life much richer.
Crows of a feather, the feeling is mutual Tereza. š„°
I am so very sad to hear about your brother in law, such a wonderful lovable guy.
I hate cancer.
Your Blog is always jam pack loaded with information and I drink it all in
Thank you.
I appreciate that, Rosemary. Thank you for the kind compliment on my blog.
Wow, that made me so sad. I cried so hard. I guess it was just time for me to have a good cry. Music and Italian food sounds like my husband. That was a beautiful tribute to Luis. Please accept my condolence for your loss.
I'm so touched, Helene, that you were so touched by it. I suspect your husband also shares a sense of humor. Give him an extra hug, just as a kindred spirit to Luis. We need all the hugs we can get.
I will.
So sorry.
Pancreatic cancer is the new epidemic.
Beautiful post Tereza! Thank you ā¤ļø
Thank you for reading this! I'm so happy to have met you ;-)
Oh Tereza, I'm so sorry about Luis. I loved getting to know him through your writing -- what a vivid picture you paint of a larger-than-life personality! Of course someone like that would still be needling you from the great beyond...
My love and blessings to you and your family. ā¤ļø
Thank you, Mary. You put it perfectly as a larger-than-life personality. Some have called him lovable but that would be very reductive for him. He took pride in his ability to argue with you about anything--didn't matter how he actually felt about it. I remember him, 20 yrs ago, saying that he would definitely have a boy as we hung out on a playground with my three daughters. Then saying, "No way my daughter's going to wear makeup" as she became the guru on dramatic eyes and multiple hair colors. She's taking the semester off and she and her mom are going to travel to Italy, and take some of his ashes. He played water polo and modeled there in his heyday, a Colombian with long flowing hair and a killer grin. So it's a whole new relationship for the two of them, and I'm glad for that.
Tereza,
Thanks for all you're doing and writing. Great articles/information.
Condolences on the loss of Luis. His "larger than life" Spirit is a message to us all, and he'll continue to live in all of us.
For all your readers/members, have you heard of Fenbendazole (aka: Horse Paste from Covid)?
Another Substack writer (FenBen) has taken to writing about this cancer treating product, and is sharing all of its applications and successes with patients (including canines).
I offer this to you, to consider, review, and if you're interested, to share with your readers.
As one Commenter stated (below) "cancer is the new epidemic".
It doesn't need to be.
I hope you find the information helpful, not just for you, but for all those that are staring down all the cancers that have "suddenly" presented.
https://fenbendazole.substack.com/
Here's a few of the cancer "cures" that he addresses: Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Stage III, Bladder, Colon, Metastatic Prostatic Adenocarcinoma, Rectal, Inoperable Metastatic Esophageal Adenocarcinoma, Plasmacytoid Urothelial Cancer, etc., etc., etc.
Greg
Thanks Greg. There are some people doing some great work in this. Catherine Austin Fitts has said that people would rather die than look in the mirror and say, I've been a patsy. That's been my experience. Either people are already in our anti-vaxxer camp and knowledgable about the alternative treatments, or they'd have to start by admitting they chose something that might kill them. It's such a diabolical plan. But I'll forward your info where it might be heard.
Mark Twain: "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."
My take: Eating a little Crow won't kill you, but so many would prefer the alternative.
Best
Greg
Not a believer or disbeliever in most post-physical-death ideas...if there's anything there, it'll be there for me sooner or later...if not, it is good to know that you got to know Luis Moreno. Coupla songs... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbsY-byj-K0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piMpklN8ZZw