Peter died..? 17 11 01 (21) revisited 25 1 21

The day I learned my friend Peter had died...17 10 29

Yeah, yesterday afternoon so his only child H advised me in a text message. She said his condition was deteriorating fast but that then finally he had steeply deteriorated and died...

Strangely yesterday afternoon as he was breathing his last breaths I was attending a party to finish off the food and wine of another party 2 days before, a 75th b-d party on the 27th when with the guy, T, who became my friend through P maybe 5 or 6 years ago we reminisced about P's life, his successes and failings when my friend reinforced what I already knew to be his very fine family...and where yesterday with the few guests returning I would return to my conversation with T. 

Then I broke off writing this piece to try to elicit just when it was he and I met at the boat-yard where we each stored our sister vessels 2 x 24 ft yachts and came across the date in my cell phone calendar: 29 Oct 2010 just 7 years ago to the day almost for an appointment to meet with him for espresso coffees in one of the cafés in the town here. Thanks to P's insistence we never frequented a single café unless it had an espresso coffee machine, for in many cases he had been instrumental in getting them installed. Such was his passion for only espresso coffee in those far off days now I can never recall him ever drinking any coffee other than espresso...

  

When I checked my digital photo albums in my pc for pics taken around this time I turned up a few of his white yacht which on the day in question was the day he had her lifted out of the sea which pointed to our meeting the previous year before I started helping him with these end of season arrangements for fellow sailors... So maybe only 8 years in all for I could find no pics of either P or his boat at the same time of year in 2009 when we would have first met owing to a mutual recognition of possessing the same H-R Misil ll yachts: mine the classical mustard coloured hull his an unusual brilliant white placed only a distance of maybe 20 yards or metres that first winter for thereafter our boats were always located side-by-side like two real sisters...

He still smoked in those day but probably stopped smoking during the year that followed our meeting: he had already stopped drinking alcoholic beverages and by that time readily admitted to attending AA. He had recently retired I learned and so had recently bought his yacht putting me in the position of knowing all the ropes whereas he was accustomed to sailing holidays with his daughter but in this special case of managing the boats on land deferring more to me...

                             

 

Because of a shared interest in sailing we very quickly became close friends: what began that first autumn was continued the following spring when the time came to relaunch the boats. During the winter I was to learn that he spent a part of his retirement freely lecturing students in Universities with his background associated with Amnesty International and no doubt Scandinavian Trade Union practices which was the field of his industrial career which I soon got to hear about from his own lips. I quickly formed the impression that he was the most cultivated person I ever met in all my life, with a few most surprising anecdotes I should hear which belied the fact that he had on occasion moved in the most exalted of circles. Like for example when he attended an International 2 day conference in Alaska I vaguely remember when on the same programme President Clinton of the US had to speak on the 2^nd day because President Castro of Cuba had spoken on the first day and neither could speak on the same day, with Tony Blair at the time the British PM. Attending this meeting P remarked how Fidel Castro got a 10 minute standing ovation upon his arrival and only spoke for 15 minutes, that is an exceptionally short speech for him when the delegates were allotted only 10 minutes, and then he commented how Tony Blair gave such a fine speech but then later when he re-read the transcript he realised he had said nothing.

Peter’s health didn’t hold up so long into our friendship but we did get to compete or more precisely take part in the local ¼ marathon event each year in the beginning of October in a group of retired Trade Unionists from different Nordic countries: a group of old colleagues who contrived to come in last to pride themselves in taking part only rather than competing, and this was followed up with a sumptuous party at his summer cottage on a nearby island, the last such party being held 15 10 3, the first year P was unable to participate in the ¼ marathon though he still hosted the party. I shall always recall Peter with profound affection.