Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Polly and John Kaiser have many fond memories of Al (almost all include Emily): musical, social, gustatory and literary to name a few.
This story brings the social and gustatory aspect into play. We were having one of our get-togethers at Yeow Tan's camp on Beech Hill Pond and we all went for a lovely hike on the nearby hill. Somehow Yeow and Emily took the right path and arrived comfortably at camp. John chose a wrong path and Polly John and Al walked forever, finally arriving battered and exhausted at the far end of the lake. Emily and Yeow went looking for us in the car and found us far from camp and gave 3 very tired people a ride back, where we had a lovely meal. Al could have been quite irritated and disgusted by this turn of events, but was typically gracious and looked at me with his classical bemused gaze.
Once we had a change in airplane flights and had to leave at 5:30 am, so we couldn't get our dogs to the kennel, which was across the street from Al and Emily"s. When we got to New York I called Al and said I left a car with the dogs in it and the widows down, on his driveway . Al said he had noticed the car, as though this sort of thing was quite common. When I got back, I thanked Al for taking the dogs over and he replied:I didn't, I called the kennel and asked them to come get the dogs!
Polly's favorite story is about the time Al fell and broke his arm. Instead of calling the ambulance or 911 he laid down and waited several hours for Emily to come home and address the problem!
I was fortunate to see Al earlier this summer. As we talked he had the same bemused smile. I will miss him greatly. John Kaiser
