老人生前和我们说过,有关他一生的经历,照片,录音录像和他的作品都保存在National Library of Canada,我们可以去看看。很可惜,我们没有找时间带上老人一起去渥太华,看他的档案,参观他被收藏在展览馆的机器和绘画作品。有一天,我一定会去看看,那里有很多他早期的照片。在这个帖子里,我用我自己手上的照片或录像上的截屏。
“Dr. Otto Joachim is our friend. I don’t want to talk about his achievements as a musician, artist, engineer and inventor. I just want to talk about him as an ordinary people. He experienced and suffered a lot in one century. He never gave up and always lived as a fighter. He had a very young heart and were very curious about new technology, new electronic devices; and he was always ready to learn new things. When he was 99 years old, he used Ebay for shopping; he bought mini-notebook computer and set up his home wireless internet system; he searched for desired equipment in internet and transferred his old works into CD for storage. He has a kind of spirit which is very important and very valuable to our young people and especially to new immigrants like us. He is also very kind and very friendly, he made chocolates for us and taught my daughters playing piano; we spent very happy and unforgettable time with him in his last years. We felt very sorrow and cried for a whole day after he passed away. We love him, we will miss him and remember him for ever.”
我知道很多人都会觉得有一些不可理解。一个朋友去世了,为什么会那么难受,还花很多时间来写点东西怀念他。有很多原因,一是老人一个世纪的经历非常丰富,除了他取得的成就外,老人发出过感慨“Believe me, life is really difficult",即便是这样,老人也从没放弃过,总是充满活力,年轻的时候是这样,古稀之年也是这样,他说过他是一位斗士,从不低头;二是我们和老人的关系,感觉去世的不仅是一个朋友,更像是一位家人,正因为没有血缘关系没有功利,才更觉得珍贵;三是如果没有和我们有关的一些事情发生,基本可以100%地肯定老人现在还活着,所以我在开篇莫名其妙地用了“唏嘘不已”这个词。很多事情让我们难以释怀,我会在以后谈到。