Brain cancer (#223, Topic D)

For several weeks, K.C., the oldest student in our Sunday Tai Chi class, did not show up. Telephone calls made to his home were merely tape-recorded and not answered in person. In today's TC class, a fellow student mentioned that K.C. had brain cancer; other than that, she had no further information. At about 9 pm, a former president of our TC club called to say that K.C.'s wife informed her that K.C. had a brain surgery yesterday, and that he passed away shortly thereafter due to after-surgery complications. Before retirement, K.C. was a dedicated senior staff member at the World Bank. Among his numerous assignments over some 30 years, he was in charge of a major power-modernization project in China; for that, I was invited to join him to assess power management's computerization needs, for which I visited six provincial capitals as well as the Power Ministry's headquarters in Beijing. For TC, K.C. and his wife were already members when my wife and I joined the club about 6 years ago. K.C. was about 8 years my senior, so, at that time, K.C. just became an octogenarian. At first, he showed up three times a week (Sunday afternoons and Tuesday and Thursday evenings); later, he came only on Sundays, since driving during late evenings became inadvisable -- indeed, we quit going to the evening sessions ourselves after we moved to our retirement community last year. K.C. enjoyed playing Mah-Jong; he probably played at least once a week. At the end of each TC session, I invariably asked him: How did it go? He was ahead more times than being behind, a mark of a good player. The last few times I saw him at TC sessions, he would leave after about 1-1/2 hours (the session lasts 2 solid hours), which, frankly was long enough, even for me. We'll miss him, a true professional and a true friend.