Like a father to George

When I married Lindsay in 1984, I married her three kids as well, especially Georgie who was the oldest. At that time he was going on 20 years old. Georgie was severely retarded, walking only with difficulty, and speaking only a few words. Over the years I became like a father to him as we would see him once or twice a week as long as we were in the country.

In the photo above I am with Georgie and Roy Aduskevitz, who took care of him. We are at the Gaylord swimming pool, where we went weekly for his therapeutic time in the pool. Roy, also, was like a father to him. I took advantage of our pool sessions to develop my underwater swimming capacity. I had inherited this from my father who was an excellent swimmer, and maintained my lung capacity as a distance runner. I could swim underwater the length of the 75 foot pool, turn underwater and return 15-20 feet.

For the first few years that I knew him, Georgie lived in one of the old-fashioned, terrible, "snake-pit" hospitals for the mentally retarded: 20-30 retarded people in one big room, crying, screaming, writhing. Once when we arrived to see him, he had been severely beaten, with bruises on all of his body.

Finally, the State of Connecticut changed its system and established individual houses with 4-5 handicapped people and at least two staff to care for them. That's when we met Roy, mentioned above.

After splitting from Lindsay, I continued to see George and Roy once every week or so at the Burger King in Hamden. Georgie was evidently very excited and pleased to see me.

The last years of his life were tumultuous because the State decided to privatize the system of homes for the handicapped, which threatened to destroy the "family" of caretakers that Georgie had come to know and depend on, replacing them with low-paid, temporary workers. Lindsay hired a lawyer (for $20,000 !!) to fight the State's decision and became the leader of the opposition to this unfortunate political decision. Over several years, despite being separated and then divorced from Lindsay, I worked with her in the struggle to save Georgie's "family." Thanks to the lawsuit, the State was unable to move Georgie from the home where the staff were his friends. Eventually, I suppose, we would have lost, but before then Georgie died from complications during a surgical operation.

Stages

1939-1957
Neosho

1957-1962
New York - Columbia

1962-1967
Yale - By What Ways

1967-1972
The New Left

1972-1977
The Soviet Union

1977-1982
Science

1982-1986
A Science of Peace

1986-1992
Fall of Soviet Empire

1992-1997
UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme

1997-2001
UN Intl Year for Culture of Peace

2001-2005
Internet for peace

2005-2010
Reports and Books

2010-2015
Indian Summer

2015-2020
Intimations of Death

2019-2024
La bonheur est dans le pre