[Rhodes22-list] Gone West

[Steven Alm]

Condolences to you, Fan and family, Brad.  Sounds like he had one heck of a
life.  Will you be traveling to Bejing?

Slim

On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 12:08 PM, KUHN, LELAND <LKUHN at cnmc.org> wrote:

> Brad,
>
> My condolences.  It's not the years a man has lived but they way in
> which he has lived them.  Sounds like Mr. Shen lived them well.
>
> Lee
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brad Haslett [mailto:flybrad at gmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 7:02 AM
> To: The Rhodes 22 Email List
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Gone West
>
> The phone rang around midnight last night (noon Beijing time) and my
> first
> thought was, "this can't be good".  My older boys are finally well
> established in their responsible young adulthood period so my next
> thought
> was "parents".  Fan's father got up from the breakfast table, said he
> didn't
> feel well and was going to lie down for a nap.  He never woke up.
>
> Mr. Shen was an interesting man.  He was born into a prosperous family
> that
> had their wealth confiscated after the civil war ended in 49'.  He and
> his
> wife were both mechanical engineers and he was well respected as an
> engineer
> and manager of several different factories. During the Cultural
> Revolution,
> he was stripped of his job and title and the associated privileges, but
> later partially re-instated because even idealistic revolutionaries need
> people who "know how to make things work". Throat cancer at the age of
> four
> and the resulting surgery robbed him of the ability to speak louder than
> a
> whisper.  When he spoke, people somehow knew it was worth the extra
> effort
> to listen carefully.
>
> While living with us, he quickly became Gracie's best friend.  She
> couldn't
> wait for the first walk of the day and would quietly wait for him to
> practice his Tai Chee excercises. I was still a Rhodes 22 owner then and
> he
> and I built a cradle for the boat in the back yard.  His English was on
> par
> with my Mandarin, non-existent, but with patience and pictures and lot's
> of
> hand gestures, we usually got our points across to each other.  On a
> later
> visit I taught him how to drive (in a parking lot) and how to sail,
> flying
> was next on the agenda.  He loved to share with his peers back home all
> the
> new skills he'd learned.
>
> Attached is a photo of Mr. Shen on his grand daughter's sailboat. He was
> 78
> this year.
>
> Brad
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