My dad died today.<\/p>\n
I wish he had lived longer.<\/p>\n
But Dad was an amazing man, a force of nature (as my aunt Myra said). He did so many things. In his medical career, he was the the American dream come to life, leveraging his empathy with patients and his business talent and his awe-inspiring energy for endless hard work into a high climb through the economic classes. In his politics, Dad was too wise, and maybe too sweet-hearted, to expect others to bootstrap themselves the way he did.<\/p>\n
My Dad loved Judaism with a passion, studying hard and then just as passionately teaching what he knew to others. He loved a good joke, and — as my email inbox can attest — many not-so-good jokes. He wrote poetry and loved music, especially the music of Bob Dylan, which he knew like an encyclopedia. Sometimes it’s hard for me to see my father in myself, but I look at his Dylan collection — countless CDs, books about, books of poems — and inwardly I see the large wall of comic books in my home, and I know our venn diagram circles are overlapping.<\/p>\n
Dad was enormously, unfailingly, almost ridiculously generous to people who needed his help. My mother said that the only thing that ever truly made him unhappy was a problem he couldn’t fix. Isn’t that a wonderful way to be remembered?<\/p>\n
He loved cooking. He loved good wine. He gave me more second chances in my life than I can count. He was so, so proud of my book. He loved his friends (who have gathered around my mother in the last few days like the warmest, most protective blanket imaginable). He loved his family.<\/p>\n
He loved me and my sister and her husband and his two beautiful grandchildren. Most of all, he loved my mother.<\/p>\n
The final diagnosis came less than a week ago, and I wish there had been more time for Dad to say goodbyes. But he died in his sleep, looking peaceful, surrounded by his family, Bob Dylan playing on the stereo. Nicely done, Dad.<\/p>\n
God, I wish he had lived longer. He should have lived longer. But my Dad was a great person who lived — who built — a great life, not just for himself but for so many around him. And that’s something I’ll remember with great joy. Which is what a life like my Dad’s deserves.<\/p>\n
My dad died today. I wish he had lived longer. But Dad was an amazing man, a force of nature (as my aunt Myra said). He did so many things. In his medical career, he was the the American dream … Continue reading ![\"Larry](\"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/larry_and_toby_deutsch.jpg\" "\\"Larry")
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\nPhoto: Larry Deutsch and Toby Hirschberg, who would later be Toby Deutsch, in 1959.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"