Until the sun grows old
Vol. 3, Issue 18
“Death comes to all, but great achievements raise a monument which shall endure until the sun grows old.” --George Fabricius
NEWS & NOTES
Let’s talk about death
Interesting fact I recently learned: There are now 15 death-positive libraries in Northern Ireland.
The Coleraine Library launched its “death positive” hub on May 5 during Dying Matters Week, a campaign that aims to raise public awareness about the importance of talking openly about death.
“We know that talking about death doesn’t make it happen, but it does make it easier to deal with when the time comes,” Sharon Williams, project manager at Compassionate Communities NI, told Northern Ireland World.
In an effort to break down the stigma surrounding conversations about dying and bereavement, local health and civic leaders collaborated with the librarians to build a dedicated support hub of death-related resources. The new collection features books for adults and children that cover grief, palliative care and serious illness. Also offered are guides on advance care planning, information to assist people in communicating future wishes with loved ones and materials to help families cope with loss.
FMI: Click here.
An unexpected duty
Imagine being married for two decades. During that time, you and your partner have formed a family unit, added children to it, built a life together and created a shared history. And then, over time, the relationship reaches its end. So, you separate for a year and prepare to deal with the legal wranglings that come with dissolving a union.
That’s what happened to Cindy Rodriguez Constable. She and her husband, Kevin, still cared deeply for each other but decided to divorce. They ended their marriage without lawyers or hostility, filing the legal papers in May 2017. Their final divorce hearing was scheduled for Sept. 25.
But on Friday, Sept. 1, Cindy received a telephone call. Kevin was suddenly very ill and needed help.
She drove Kevin to the emergency room, where doctors discovered he was in liver failure. Although the couple was supposed to be officially divorced in just 24 days, Cindy remained by Kevin’s side, leaving only to check on their daughters. That weekend, he suffered cardiac arrest, which caused catastrophic damage. Kevin died on Sept. 8.
At that point, Cindy had to plan his funeral instead of finalizing their divorce. Her experience is definitely worth a read.
FMI: Click here.
Grief and loss meet laughter and joy
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NOTABLE OBITS
* Philip Caputo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and veteran whose bestselling memoir about fighting in the Vietnam War became a classic, died at 84. The Chicago native graduated from Loyola University, then enlisted in the Marine Corps as an infantry officer to serve in Vietnam, an experience he would later chronicle in his 1977 memoir “A Rumor of War.” In the prologue, Caputo wrote that the book was “simply a story about war, about the things men do in war and the things war does to them.” Yet, it sold more than 1.5 million copies, was translated into 15 languages and became required reading for many high school students. Following his time in the service, Caputo landed a job as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune and was part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for reporting on election fraud. He also worked as a foreign correspondent for numerous publications, reporting on conflicts all over the world. Caputo even returned to Vietnam as a journalist and covered the fall of Saigon in 1975. That same year, he was wounded in the legs by gunfire while reporting on the Lebanese civil war. Caputo also penned 12 novels, four works of nonfiction and two additional memoirs. (Mitch Dudek, Chicago Sun-Times and Joseph Berger, The New York Times)
* Lilias Folan, who spent nearly 30 years as the host of the PBS show “Lilias, Yoga And You,” died. She was 90. Born in Boston, Folan attended Bennington College, married and bore two sons. However, when she experienced postpartum depression, Folan joined a yoga class and discovered that the practice helped her to heal physically, mentally and spiritually. After the family moved to Cincinnati in 1968, she became a yoga teacher. Two years later, Folan launched her instructional yoga TV program at the Cincinnati station WCET. It was so popular that other stations requested to broadcast it. At its peak, “Lilias, Yoga and You” aired on nearly 200 stations and made yoga accessible to millions of viewers. The program would continue to run until 1999. Folan, who became known as “The First Lady of Yoga,” also authored four books on the practice. (Jeré Longman, The New York Times and Greg Evans, Deadline)
* Israeli American psychologist Edna Foa, 88, who urged patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to face their fears, died. Born in Haifa (present-day Israel) to parents who immigrated from Poland during World War II, Foa trained as a teacher on a kibbutz. She had a short stint working with juvenile offenders in an institution, which inspired her to return to school and study to become a psychologist. Foa immigrated to the U.S. in the 1960s and focused her research on obsessive-compulsive disorder and phobias. It was during this period that she developed her prolonged exposure therapy, a technique she tested both with medication and without. The protocol involved 8 to 12 sessions, each lasting 90 minutes, during which a patient would recount a traumatic event in the present tense and in full detail. Then, the patient would be exposed to a reminder of the traumatic event. Foa tested the therapy as a treatment for rape survivors and found that it helps them. She then applied it to people who suffered from PTSD and also discovered that the patients experienced improvement. In 2007, the V.A. adopted Foa’s approach as a first-line treatment for PTSD. Three years later, Time Magazine named her one of the world’s 100 most influential people. (Ellen Barry, The New York Times)
* John Sterling, the radio play-by-play voice of the New York Yankees for more than 35 years, died. He was 87. The native New Yorker knew early on that the future — his future — was radio. After spending his childhood studying the medium, Sterling was hired for his first on-air job at a station in Wellsville, N.Y. Over the next 20 years, he’d host a talk show and call games for the New York Islanders (hockey), the New York Nets, New Jersey Nets and the Atlanta Hawks (basketball), and the Atlanta Braves (baseball). Then in 1989, Sterling landed a dream gig: calling the radio play-by-play for the Yankees. He would eventually call 5,420 regular-season (5,060 consecutively until his 81st birthday in 2019) and 211 postseason games -- more than any other Yankees announcer in history. Sterling was particularly beloved by fans who enjoyed his habit of creating colorful phrases for players, such as an “A-bomb for A-Rod!” (for Alex Rodriguez) and “Bern, baby, Bern!” (for Bernie Williams). He retired in 2024. (Richard Sandomir, The New York Times)
* TV mogul Ted Turner, the charming, arrogant, brash and visionary founder of CNN, TBS and Turner Classic Movies, died at 87. Although Turner was born in Ohio, he would build his media empire in Atlanta. In the 1970s, Turner purchased a TV station and turned it into the national “superchannel” known as TBS. He also bought the Atlanta Braves baseball team and, in 1977, broadcast their games on his network, thus transforming the franchise into “America’s Team.” In 1980, Turner launched the nation’s first continuous all-news TV station in a converted Jewish country club. The Cable News Network struggled to find its footing in the early years, but transformed into a journalistic powerhouse in the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly after it was the only U.S. network able to broadcast live from Baghdad during America’s first war in Iraq. Turner was also an accomplished yachtsman -- he won the America’s Cup sailing competition in 1977 -- and the founder of the Goodwill Games. In addition, he founded the United Nations Foundation, campaigned for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons and promoted conservation (he even created the Captain Planet cartoon to educate kids about the environment). (Brian Stelter and Ann O’Neill, CNN, David Folkenflik, NPR and Jonathan Kandell, The New York Times)
FAMOUS DEATHS IN HISTORY
On May 11, Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley (36), English author Douglas Adams (49) and comedian/actor Jerry Stiller (92)
On May 12, British writer/professor Arthur Quiller-Couch (80), singer/actor/TV personality Perry Como (88) and Swiss artist H.R. Giger (74)
On May 13, Irish-American mobster Mickey Spillane (43), jazz trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker (58) and actress/singer Doris Day (97)
On May 14, actress Rita Hayworth (68), newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Jr. (85) and magician Harry Blackstone, Jr. (62)
On May 15, actor/comedian Fred Willard (86), TV evangelist/founder of Liberty University Jerry Falwell (73) and country singer June Carter Cash (73)
On May 16, engineer/co-designer of the Golden Gate Bridge Joseph Strauss (68), Prohibition agent Eliot Ness (54) and comedian/actor Andy Kaufman (35)
On May 17, author Herman Wouk (103), composer Vangelis (79) and WWII flying ace Bud Anderson (102)
On May 18, the first woman elected to Congress Jeannette Rankin (92), actress Elizabeth Montgomery (62) and golf course designer Arthur Hills (91)
RECOMMENDED SUBSTACK
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Thank God, I have done my duty.” --Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, Royal Navy admiral
MOMENT OF GRATITUDE
Thanks to T.R., Unsplash, the Coleraine Library, Awareness Days, Compassionate Communities, Northern Ireland World, Northern Ireland Hospice, YouTube, Causeway Chronicle, Love Ballymena, Newsweek, CBS Sunday Morning, The Death Deck, A Bit of Good News, Chicago Sun-Times, The New York Times, the “Today” show, Deadline, MLB, CNN, NPR, The Moonlight Reader Society, On This Day, Playback.FM, Britannica: This Day in History, Time and Date, Wikipedia, Hello, Adversity, Canva and Deposit Photos for art and story suggestions. Note: Generative AI was not used during the ideation, creation or publication of this newsletter.
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