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Simon Emslie's avatar

Lovely tribute, John. Just looked up the kudu lily. It has lots of character, like your friend Sunao.

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John Bruce Laing's avatar

Sunao was a very cool guy. Miss him a lot.

Thank you for your kind words.🙏

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Christin Chong, PhD's avatar

agree, thank you for the tribute and letting us know Sunao.

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James Bailey's avatar

Beautifying tribute John. I smiled as I thought of my dad - I asked him what he might like to eat within the last 24 hours of his life and he said, “a milkshake.” Pineapple.

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John Bruce Laing's avatar

Interesting. I don't think I have ever encountered a pineapple milkshake. 🥤

Always grateful for your kind support, James. Thank you.

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James Bailey's avatar

John, we hadn’t either. It was totally random - in my 55 years I’d never seen him even even eat pineapple. He was on hospice with his eyes closed for the better part of two days, and those were his last words. On the anniversary of his death my brother and sisters and I zoom and each make a pineapple milkshake.

It’s neat to see you writing more. 👏 I’m enjoying it.

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John Bruce Laing's avatar

I have been thinking of pineapple shakes. I wonder if the deep regions of your father's mind wanted to prank his children. "I'm going to leave them with a mystery to think about. Ha. Ha."

This reminded me of a story about Richard Feynman—of twelve problems fame— when he was in his last hours in a coma. He apparently unfolded his arms and then folded them behind his head in an almost theatrical gesture, leaving everyone puzzling how it was possible.

When I have some time, I will look up "pineapple shake" and make myself one.

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James Bailey's avatar

That’s a great thought! I think you might be right. I love that story about Feynman. Shouldn’t we be thinking about how we’re going to prank our kids somehow?!?

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John Bruce Laing's avatar

I don’t have any children. Maybe that’s why I became a professor—so I can be with other people’s children for a while.

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Kevin Hsu's avatar

This is so heart warming. I'm sorry for your lost of a good friend. If I were him, I'd be very thankful to have you caring about me so much.

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