There are few people we know who quietly go about their life and, yet, have touched so many people both directly and for generations to come.
There was no fanfare to him and certainly none at his passing. I have added a link HERE to let you see what a great soul he was to me and to many. Gene's last 6 years with a transplanted heart is an extraordinary testament to Living on the Edge of Science.
Gene was truly my Guardian Angel when Debbie totally crashed and was sent from Norfolk General to the Cleveland Clinic on total life support via jet. He spent hours talking with me and helped me through that crisis. His care, his insight, his advice was all sincerely given and he listened to no end to me for nearly 3 months.
Anyone who knows me, well, that says a lot for Gene. A few years later he taught me, like about 50,000 others, CPR in the event I needed to do it on Debbie.
We tried, when we could, to catch up with Gene as we returned again and again to Cleveland. His last few years were pretty rough on him, socially, financially, and family. We tried where we could and were saddened that we could not make it back to be beside him in his final hours.
Even though he had a pretty good idea what was ahead of him after his first heart attack in November, he took the time to visit Debbie in the hospital at the time she was informed that her transplanted heart was failing. Gene was that type of true humanitarian.
Gene was also quite unique in perspective having nearly died about 8 times. He was like an etched window into heaven. You could get a sense of the realm beyond, or the transition to a "different form of energy" as Gene would say, but not a clear definition. Christian religion refers to it as "seeing through the looking glass darkly" but with Gene, there was light. Most importantly, Gene taught me what was important, that being life itself, and that which is not being about everything else of this world.
He will be missed in my life but I am forever enlightened by Gene. I can only hope from this side of the energy that he found the energy he hoped to embrace and that it is kind to him.
-Lou