RE: [Leica] Happy New Year - Tet, a personal note

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

A very moving tribute, Phong.

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Phong
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 4:19 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: RE: [Leica] Happy New Year - Tet, a personal note


All that calendrical talk was not just idle talk for me. Someone very
dear to me died yesterday after several 
months battling cancer.  He was 77.  As Tet approached, 
he knew his final days were nearing.  His wish was to 
make it past Tet, as you increase your age on Tet, according
to Vietnamese customs, not on your birthday.  He succumbed 
at 6:00pm  yesterday, Montreal time.

Born in the late 1928 in North Vietnam, his lifetime spanned
an "interesting" junction in Vietnamese history.  He had to leave his
home when the Communists took over in the 1950's; and once again when
they took over the South in 1975.  An avid violinist and photographer,
he had to abandon his medical training when he was drafted; he later had
to leave behind a very honorable career in law, where and when the law
was not always the rule of the land.  
Though he was a Nikon man, he appreciated my Leica and Rolleiflex 
very much, as they were the cameras of his time; on the day he 
evacuated from Saigon, he grabbed his camera bag, and shot with 
that Nikon F until a burglar took it from his home in Montreal.  
He continued to shoot, scan, and Photoshop until his very last days.

Yesterday afternoon, surrounded by his wife, sons, daughter and grand
children, he was told that at that moment, it was already Tet in his 
beloved home land, and that, indeed, he made it thru Tet.  He passed 
away shortly thereafter, with a faint smile.  He was the sweetest man,
and is missed by us all.

- - Phong


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