As he talked, I kept drawing parallels between his experience and that of my youngest brother.
For both, there was about a ten-year difference in age with their eldest sibling.
What that really boils down to is the eldest leaving home when the youngest was only about 8 years old.
That means the eldest missed most of the coming of age of their youngest sibling.
I had not ever considered that.
I knew that Tony had loved me, even calling me his 'Little Mama', because he had me around much more than our working Mama.
That meant that when I went into the Navy and was gone for almost 8 years, he felt a bit deserted.
When Dick Nordquist had gone off to college and England, Paul felt deserted, too.
I honestly had never considered the effect of my leaving on my brothers.
I doubt 18-year-old Dick had considered that, either.
The realization almost had me in tears.
Thank God for facebook, or I doubt I would have known.
I had friended him on that social site in mid-fall, just a few months ago.
I won't say that I knew him well, but he'd made quite an impression on me in 1995, when I pioneered distance learning for the chemistry department.
I talked about that experience with Paul before I left.
When I was teaching that CHE201 class simultaneously at Armstrong and the campus in Brunswick, I'd asked Dick if there was a way to record the lecture for students that missed it or wanted to review it.
"You bring the VHS tape and we can insert it into the feed," he'd told me.
For a literature and language professor, he was amazingly techno savvy.
I'd brought a tape with me to each two-hour lecture, then arranged for students to borrow the tapes from the school library.
I should have those lectures around the house somewhere, both the VHS form as well as on DVD, transferred by Jennifer Incorvaia around 2012.
I had only friended John a couple of weeks ago.
John is the one who posted about this gathering at the Armstrong Ballroom, inviting all who knew Dick to convene for the afternoon.
I had the chance to speak with John before it all began.
Incredibly, he is still at the university, still planning to stay on for another few years, there in the psychology department.
Yes, Michael Findeis is still intact and still has his sense of humor!
That's him in the teal-colored shirt.
Glaucoma may have slowed him down a little, but he's still going.
Good for him!
Lea and Cliff Padgett were there, too, and I talked with them briefly.
I'll have to see what their link was to the Literature professor.
She and I recognized each other right away, though we didn't recall what connection we might have shared.
I took our tenuous link as a reason to sit with her during the Celebration, as I dined on lasagna, salad, chicken with peppers, crusty Italian bread, and a Krispy Kreme doughnut.
We listened to the many tales of Dick from those who knew him -
his wad of keys to everything on campus...
his shoebox-sized cell phone that he proudly toted around...
his love of the students and of those who served them...
his abhorrence of having to come in on Fridays, his one day off during semesters, for silly meetings and such...
his love of all language, including curse words...
his helpful nature and love of personal learning, as evidenced by his home library of hundreds of books.
That's when I recalled how I knew Leigh: she's the publisher who helped Josie with her book about her time in Ghana.
I made sure Leigh knew that Josie will be at the Book Fair this year.
Then I came home, to let my tears flow.
I wish I could have told Dick how much I appreciated his help back in 1995.
At least I passed that message to his brother.
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