Sunset

By Eugene Weisberger and Lila Weisberger

He loved the earth so much he wanted to live forever (Kunitz)
Gene loved sunrise and inspired others with his grit and determination to live as fully as possible. Hi devoted doctors at MSK called him Lazarus and elongated his life for 20 years with their brilliance, encouragement and wise decisions. A tribute to Gene Weisberger from his wife Lila of 46 years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524592486

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Eugene Weisberger; Lila Weisberger. 550921

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5245-9247-9

Hardcover           978-1-5245-9246-2

EBook      978-1-5245-9248-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 05/24/2017

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword: In Th e Valley

Prologue: To Lila My Love

Story 1 Castles in America: An Interesting Concept About Names

Story 2 Lila’s Recollections Of My Illness

Story 3 The Dance Recital

Story 4 My Unusual Exercise Program

Story 5 Copenhagen

Story 6 Taking Two Weeks At a Time: Noel’s Visit

Story 7 How To Have A Peaceful Demonstration

Story 8 Visiting An Old Doctor Friend

Story 9 Traveling With Gary

Story 10 Enjoying Ninety: Flanagan’s Pub

Story 11 Accidents

Story 12 Passports

Story 13 Reykjavik, fifteen years later.

Story 14 Coral Castle, Southern Florida

Story 15 Visiting The Azores

Story 16 No Room For Error

Story 17 Hospital

Story 18 C’est la vie

Story 19 An Exciting Hospital Visit

Story 20 Xlibris

Story 21 Multitasking

Story 22 My Old Pals

Story 23 So Far

Story 24 By 1/12 Of A Mile

Story 25 Memories

Story 26 Crossing the Atlantic Again

Story 27 Thinking Again About Iceland

Story 28 Noel’s Story

Story 29 Patrick and I

Story 30 Five Year Plan

Story 31 Wall Street

Story 32 Enjoying Ninety

Story 33 Three Things

Story 34 A Tooth Problem

Story 35 Changes

Story 36 A Tale Stored In My Brain

Dedicated to Gene

HOW MUCH DO I LOVE THEE

I’LL TELL YOU NO LIES

FOREWORD

Lila Weisberger

In June 2016 Gene was looking ahead to his 90th birthday in December 2016. He even hoped to reach 100 and thought he could.

In the Valley

He loved the earth so much

he wanted to stay forever. (Kunitz)

Gene was active until the last weeks of his life. Writing and photography became his second career after he became ill in 1996. His camera never left his side. He worked on his photos and created collages as well as detailed drawings with his water color pencils. He continued to study the stock market and buy and sell stocks. He loved numbers and could do complex calculations without paper or pen or calculator. For example he easily estimated the number of attendees at an event and knew the dimensions of the room. He wrote 13 travel books and remembered the details of each trip he took. He never had to look at the notes in his travel journal or do any research. One of his first books is titled Lazarus and is autobiographical. I helped him with some of his books, but it is only now that I am so grateful that he wrote these books, relishing reliving our life together.

During the last year of his life he was writing his next book On Becoming Ninety.

After some searching I found the manuscript for this book. I admire the way his mind worked. He loved to travel and his recall of the intricacies of each trip he took was remarkable. He had an extraordinary coping mechanism. To calm himself or when he was going through a painful medical procedure he would relive one of his many trips. After many years he adjusted to the shock of his illnesses and life changes. He continued to travel the world whether in a back brace or a wheel chair with a canister of oxygen. Gene selected a newly built bench in Sunken Meadow State Park in Long Island where we often walked and we wrote a plaque for the bench. This is what it says:

WEISBERGER FAMILY, LILA AND GENE

WE SHARED THESE MANY HAPPY DAYS TOGETHER

THOUGH THE WIND AND RAIN - SNOW AND ICE

NEVER STOPPED OUR SUN FROM SHINING THROUGH

By the end of May 2016 Gene took a realistic look at the state of his health. He knew that his brain was functioning well but that his body was failing. He was motivated to get as much physical therapy in the hospital as possible. He would do anything possible to stay alive. Ultimately it was out of his control.

Year 2015 was a difficult year for us. For the first time Gene