He was 94 years old, and died 2 days ago. He had fallen a few weeks ago, and had to have his hip replaced and a pacemaker installed. They kept him at a nursing home for a few weeks while he healed, but he had to go back when he started getting sick. Apparently they had taken him off of some cardiac medication earlier, and it caused all kinds of problems. They had to resuscitate him once, and a day or two later he passed away.
I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Athens to go to the funeral (my brother and I are gonna be pallbearers) and won't get back until Monday.
I feel bad because I never really got to know him outside of visits. He barely talked (my grandmother is loud and never stops talking, so he just sat and listened), but I always got the feeling that he knew and understood a lot. His father died when he was young, so he had to work to support his mother. He worked and went to college during the Depression, at the University of Georgia for his bachelor's, and LSU for his master's, in journalism. He was a journalist, a teacher of journalism, its history, and its law, a combat medic in Italy, a teacher again, a husband to my grandmother (who had lost her first husband over Germany), a stepfather to my oldest uncle, and a father to two children of his own. He basically created the Alumni Society at UGA today. He had the most amazing memory; he knew EVERYONE, their families, where they went to school, where they lived. He always liked to joke, and had funny sayings that he made up from things he heard in Louisiana and Italy, and just from meeting so many people.
Goodbye, "T." I'll miss you. :'(
