Journal The Fun Guy's Journal: 191.4 Goodbye, Jeff 2
From the U of C alumni magazine, I just learned of the death of my second roommate from college.
Jeff and I were in the same year. We were in the same physics and calculus classes, and we each suffered the same humiliating realization that a physics major was utterly the wrong course of study. We both flailed around at the end of freshman year and the beginning of sophomore year before settling on majors better suited to our talents and temperaments: biology for me, economics for Jeff.
Jeff's original roommate was a smelly, self-absorbed nitwit. By the end of the first term, he had more or less moved in with his girlfriend. His girlfriend's roommate (who happened to be my girlfriend) was flexible and patient.
At the end of the second term, various turmoils and official personnel actions created a vacant single room. My roommate, Pat Q., took it, and Jeff moved in with me. This worked out pretty well for all concerned.
There were a few "established" couples in our dorm, the kind of pairings that were said as though they were one word - Jennyandcharlie, Jeffandchristine, Belaandandrea, etc.
Jeff told us that early-onset Alzheimer's had taken his father, grandfather and other members of the family in their forties. He fully expected to have only a short life. He and Christine were so deeply in love that they talked of getting married before graduation, so they could be together in the few years ahead.
It was romantic twaddle, of course, but no less heartfelt for all of that. They broke up, or grew apart, in our third year. As a senior, Jeff fell in love with a freshman. They dated for several years, then married. Though he and I lost touch, I knew that he and his wife had a good life together in Chicago. He worked as a stockbroker, started his own firm, did very well, and then found a passion for baking, of all things. He became an accomplished pastry chef. He participated in a Washington University study on memory and aging.
He died in April of complications from early-onset Alzheimer's, at the age of 39. He leaves behind his wife, mother, grandmother and several aunts. He was apparently the last male in his family, all of his previous male relatives having died of the same disease.
It's not been a good year for my former roommates.
UPDATE: Jeff's obituary.
No shit! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I do seem to be the common denominator of death, don't I? Ask me if I'm happy about that.