"Did she do her business," I asked Doug. His response, not a willful pun, I don't think, was: "Oui (or did he mean 'wee-wee')." I was amused.
The snow is coming down convincingly this morning (10:00 a.m.), the second of this year, the first being just two days ago on the day dad died. Have been to Pathmark to get some priorities but added other meal stuff, but definitely needed bread and milk. Out in the parking lot, the snow coming down steady, a middle-aged store clerk, who was taking on responsibility of getting carts back to the store, held mine as I unloaded the rest of the bags of groceries, so quickly and adeptly rung up and bagged by the Pathmark cashier, who'd been working at her frenetic pace since 6 a.m. Some people -- and I love the workers at Pathmark -- just "pay it forward" and they do it everyday, unnoticed. Well, I try to notice and affirm.
From the Mealey Funeral Homes web site, here's the just-posted obituary of Dr. Rudolph Nyhoff:
Rudolph Nyhoff, MD
Rudolph Nyhoff, MD, passed away peacefully at home with family at his bedside on a beautiful snowy Sunday afternoon, December 8, 2013. He was 85 years of age and died from lung cancer.
He was born in The Hague, Netherlands on August 22, 1928, to Hendrika Verhaaf and Jacob Nijhoff. He was an only child raised by his mother.
He was schooled in one of the finest academic institutions in Holland, the Gymnasium Haganum, one of the oldest public schools in the Netherlands, located in his hometown.
He attended Leiden University, also in The Hague, and studied medicine. After completion of his studies, he emigrated to the United States and a residency at Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut. Here, he met a dynamic, energetic charge nurse, Virginia Vertucci, and they dated for a short period and were wed in February of 1956. Nine months later, their first child was born. In June 1958, their second and last child was born. Both were boys, the oldest Rudolph Nicholas (not a junior) and Douglas Alan.
He would move his young family back to Holland for two years to finish up medical training returning in 1960. He then finished his residency in internal medicine at Memorial Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware. Three years later, he would set up his practice at 4546 Pickwick Drive in Limestone Gardens.
For 32 years, Dr. Nyhoff was the medical doctor at the Employee Health Clinic at the Memorial Hospital. Years later, retired, he would go to Christiana Hospital and longtime employees would recognize him and greet him with affection.
He was a great record and CD collector, almost entirely classical music. His great mentor and icon throughout his life was the conductor Arturo Toscanini. He knew so much about him, collected many of his recordings. He came to this country with a single record and no record player. It was his favorite violinist, Jascha Heifetz, playing the Brahms' Violin Concerto. He found a fellow intern to play it for him.
He loved to play bridge, follow chess games in the New York Times, his favorite newspaper; watch tennis, especially the majors; and go to art museums. He was a longtime supporter and member of the Delaware Art Museum. He was an avid news follower.
But most of all, he loved to travel and imbued that love to his family, specifically his wife of almost 58 years, Virginia "Jean". When the kids were young, he took his family to Canada, out west to the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, to the Caribbean several times, to England and France and Germany and Holland, and to Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines and Hawaii, among others. When the kids were adults and they were empty nesters, they went to China, Russia, the Arctic on an icebreaker, South America, just all over. True world travelers.
He is survived by his wife Virginia; two sons, Rudy and Doug; grandchildren Nicholas and Lindsay (Rudy's children) and Norma Virginia (Doug's child); daughter-in-laws Norma Nyhoff and Susan Thisell. On his his wife's side, surviving relatives include: her brother Nicholas Vertucci; and nieces Elizabeth "Liz" Ouellette, Joyce Russ Vertucci, Lori Jones, Debbie Hernandez, and Teri Vertucci. His great-niece Marissa Finn (husband John) and her children, Sean and Mia.
There will be a visitation on Saturday, December 14, 2013 at Mealey Funeral Home on Limestone Road, from noon to 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, charitable donations can be sent to the American Cancer Society. Many thanks to Delaware Hospice.
(12/10/13)
Cassandra Harris has brought me to tears by sharing a post of the French National Orchestra (Orchestre national de France ) playing Cesar Franck's only Symphony in D Minor on YouTube, one associated with the State of Delaware's anthem. Today is the composer's birthday. It is a wonderful performance and I wrote to her, in our FB dialogue for the post:
César Franck was born on this day in 1822. His Symphony in D minor was harshly criticized after its first performance at the Paris Conservatory in February 1889 (the critic Camille Bellaigue wrote of its “arid and gray” melodies that were “devoid of grace or charm,” and “destined to vanish at once”).
It is now one of the most beloved symphonies of the late 19th century.
It is now one of the most beloved symphonies of the late 19th century.
Doug recently returned with a panoply of goods -- drinks, paper products, tea bags, salad
fixings, rugs for the bathroom, et al. ... he is such a dynamo. He's been working all day
cleaning and throwing stuff out, something I find very difficult, at least the throwing out
part. I'm too much of a pack hound and too sentimental.
I was talking to Len Cummings, who phoned me from Colorado on the landline as he'd
lost my cell phone number. Sounded good and is doing well with all the services he needs
including an excellent cable package on TVs that were given to him. He did get my
birthday card for his 60th.
What I am truly thankful for today:
fixings, rugs for the bathroom, et al. ... he is such a dynamo. He's been working all day
cleaning and throwing stuff out, something I find very difficult, at least the throwing out
part. I'm too much of a pack hound and too sentimental.
I was talking to Len Cummings, who phoned me from Colorado on the landline as he'd
lost my cell phone number. Sounded good and is doing well with all the services he needs
including an excellent cable package on TVs that were given to him. He did get my
birthday card for his 60th.
What I am truly thankful for today:
- Watching Dancer, tear around the corner in the snow and slide on the slick sidewalk toward me this morning. (I'd let her off the leash and she'd gone around the house attracting the attention and concern of Chris Senge, who got to meet Doug.)
- Watching my Type A brother clean and toss stuff and just get the details ironed out for the reception this coming Saturday (he called Serpe's for baked dessert trays and went to the store and bought all the paper products, among other items).
- The middle-aged store clerk, who took on the job of collecting grocery carts from the slick -- snow was falling -- parking lot, and who held my cart while I removed groceries to place in the trunk of my car. It truly was pay it forward. (I had had to go because we were out of bread and milk and mom needed her toast and I needed my Cheerios, which I bought also.)
- A call on the landline from Len Cummings in Colorado and learning he'd lost my cell number but that he had all his services lined up and was in a safe place with a good cable package and television and access to books, DVDs at a loaning institution.
- Calling Robert Leroy Jones on my 2.21 mile walk on the at-times icy paths around the neighborhood and St. John School and through the woods. He is in a new place with two rooms and a private bath and a helper who cleans and cooks for him. All for $700 or $400 less than his previous place where he had no privacy and a community bathroom.
- AND OF COURSE ... finishing the obituary, with Doug's editing skill, and posting it and getting such good responses from my FB friends. It is in this blog entry but what a relief, even if I did not mention that my parents had been to India and rode elephants.
- Finally, Cassandra Harris sending me the link to Cesar Franck's only symphony, a tremendous recording in a library by a French orchestra. So superb and fitting on the composer's birthday and on the day of the formal announcement of the death of my father (at least in the written obituary being posted online).
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