Herman

This is a picture of Marilyn and her husband Herman October 23, 2003, at Herman’s retirement party. Herman was a co-worker of mine. We worked together between 10 and 15 years before we realized I knew his wife Marilyn when she was a baby. She is my good friend Ed W’s niece.

I think Herman was retired for about 45 minutes (exaggeration) before he found a job. He went to work for the Cobb County Board of Education. He said he was bored just sitting around. Nervous energy. Tch tch.

Relaxing is an art of the past.

Herman called me today and told me he is scheduled to have another open-heart surgery Friday. Since about 1990 his cardiovascular system has been fragile. He has had several stints installed and one by-pass operation.

The upcoming operation is to by-pass the by-pass, if I understood correctly, and there other complications. They said if it was just a by-pass there is a 2% chance of something going wrong, but with all that has already gone wrong, the chances of something bad happening goes up to 30% That is almost a one in three chance.

The doctor put it simply, when he gets in his heart there is a certain artery to avoid cutting into – he gave the name of it but I didn’t retain it. He said the artery doesn’t have a label or a sign on it, and if he accidentally cuts into it, well, that is it.

Today is Herman's birthday. I hope he has a happy birthday and many more.