Eulogy for my father

[veritykindle]

I know I haven't posted here in a long time, but my father died very early on Wednesday morning, and we had the funeral for him today, and I just wanted to save the speech I gave at the funeral.

So here is my eulogy for my father, may he rest in peace.

Comments

[kirbyfest]

I am so sorry for your loss. What a beautiful tribute to him.

[veritykindle]

Thank you so much! *hugs*

We were hoping to the very last moment that something might be done to save my father, so it was something of a shock when he died. It is never easy, though, I know.

(This has been a truly horrible half a year for my family. I lost two of my grandparents, and now my father, in the span of about 6 months. I'm just really hoping we are done with all this death now (*knock on wood*); I am not sure I can handle anything more.)

[kirbyfest]

I lost two grandparents close together, and that was hard enough without losing my father, too. Take good care of yourself.

[veritykindle]

Thank you. I'm trying to take it one day at a time, for now.

[icepixie]

I'm sorry to hear about your father's passing.

[veritykindle]

*hugs* Thank you.

[eve11]

Oh, I am so sorry to hear this. Thank you for sharing your tribute. A part of the people we lose does live on (continuity, the mathematician might say), and there is also the part that exists outside of time; the parts that built you up to who you are. The past is untouchable and immutable and true, irrespective of the sense that it seems to get farther away.

He taught me what it means to truly know and understand a subject inside and out, rather than just knowing some of the surface facts about it, and what a difference it makes to your understanding of the world. This is why the world is so much better for teachers and thinkers. It doesn't matter the subject; whether it's a rarefied theory or in the trenches of applications, math or history or whatever. This knowledge is precious, and it lives on in family as I see from your story. And from my experience it lives on too with students who may never have had such role models growing up. I know I didn't, and I am only now understanding the depth that kind of knowledge,

[veritykindle]

*hugs* Thank you so much for your kind words!

This is why the world is so much better for teachers and thinkers. It doesn't matter the subject; whether it's a rarefied theory or in the trenches of applications, math or history or whatever.This is exactly right! I'm so glad to see that what I meant to say really came across, because I feel like this might be one of the most important things I learned from my father

[raincitygirl]

I'm really sorry. And that's a really good eulogy.

[veritykindle]

*hugs* Thank you! I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to do my father justice.

re:

[roman_kr]

Dear Kate,
I was one from students of your father in 1980 when he was a lecturer in People university in Moscow (These period of his life he described in his paper in Mathematical education.)
Last days I found paper and two math problems that he did not publish in his site - I think they could be published in his memorial site and
be in your arxive. Keeping always memory about Andrei
Roman, Jerusalem

Here the links.
http://libgen.info/view.php?id=11318
http://www.problems.ru/view_problem_details_new.php?id=78755

[veritykindle]

Thank you so much, Roman! I've heard a lot about my father's time teaching at the People's University, so it's great to talk to someone who was in the classes there! And we were just talking recently about how we would like to find some of the problems my father had for school-age children, so it's really nice to see these problems.

I've never seen the format that the magazine, Kvant, is in, though - .djvu. Do you know if there is a program that can read it, or maybe convert it to some other format, like pdf or epub?

Also, I have no idea how this comment ended up in the spam filter! Sorry about that! Things like that didn't happen back when I still posted regularly on livejournal.

(By the way, if it is easier for you to write in Russian, that is fine with me as well. I am not great at writing in Russian, but I am happy to read it.)

[cema]

There are browser plugins for djvu, as well as standalone programs. You can even read it on a smartphone.

http://djvu.org/ is adequate for desktops. On a smartphone, just install an appropriate app.

The format is great for representing scientific literature. Converters to pdf exist but reading the original djvu is more convenient.

[veritykindle]

Thank you, cema! I will try djvu.org, then.