Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/01/22

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Happy New Year - Tet, a personal note
From: "Bill Harting" <wharting@verizon.net>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 21:50:53 -0500
References: <BCEKKGNGDPMOIPMEJONBCEFPDKAA.phong@doan-ltd.com>

A beautiful story, Phong. You are an interesting man.

Happy New year.

Bill H

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phong" <phong@doan-ltd.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 4:18 PM
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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In reply to: Message from "Phong" <phong@doan-ltd.com> (RE: [Leica] Happy New Year - Tet, a personal note)