Usually I'm very good about keeping emails that have anything at all in them that's important to me. Sadly, there's one message that for some reason I didn't keep, because not only was it the only one I would have had from DR Kerry, but the message was so meaningful to me that I've tried to paraphrase it for others on several occasions.
In early April 2013 I posted that our veterinarian had died, in his fifties I think, of a massive heart attack. It sent a shock wave through the community, especially among cat owners, because he had started the local Cat Clinic which had earned its reputation as an extraordinarily special and dedicated place for wonderful medical care as well as the specially designed boarding facilities for our beloved friends.
After posting about that, I got a private message of condolence from DR Kerry, in which he observed that often it is not necessarily just the death of a loved one or a close friend that sends that shock wave, so much as the totally unexpected death of someone in one's community who's a pillar of support, the disappearance of whom can cause a huge sense of loss and the totally unsettling feeling that our world can collapse at any moment. As I said, that's a poor paraphrasing of the shorter and more elegant way Kerry expressed that, but he was so right. That man's death still hangs over the community four years later, even though the practice has continued and is run by someone just as dedicated. But there are some people on this earth you can't replace.
It just happens that our beloved black cat Poe is nearing the age of fifteen, and only in the past several months he has been showing the signs of aging that I've been through too many times with these critters. I dreaded picking up the phone yesterday afternoon and making an appointment for him to see the vet next week to get caught up on his vaccinations and for a thorough going over. We so don't want to hear what we're probably going to hear, which could be the onset of kidney disease (especially prevalent in older cats) or something equally troubling. But I did it, and we're going to have to be emotionally prepared for it come Monday.
So, again, there have been several occasions when I found it important to convey DR Kerry's message to others, either for their own comfort in a particular situation, or just for the conveyance of the thought itself. And in making that phone call, Kerry's words were once again ringing in my ears, as it were. I wish I had thanked him for that message -- not back then, because I surely did that, but again in more recent times. Because not three hours later I decided to take just a minute before rehearsal started to check into HHW -- which hadn't been typical for me, I'd been waiting till afterwards late in the evening to sign back in -- and there was the shocking news of Kerry's passing. There was other unsettling stuff yesterday, too -- not on this magnitude, but just other stuff I didn't need -- and this capped a troubling day.
Kerry was obviously loved by many. Thanks to BK and everyone else for such lovely remembrances. If there are any pictures anyone can post, please do.
