I had the privilege to know Coach Las and his son for the past three years. Seeing them always brightened my Tuesday clinic days for several reasons. First, seeing Coach Las gave me the opportunity to talk football with an expert and giant of the game. Coach Las played in two World Cup Finals and one European Championship and also coached Hungary to the World Cup Finals in Spain in 1982. However, I was also moved every time I witnessed the banter devotion between Coach and his son Laszlo during their visits. It was as though they were giving me a lesson on how to stand by someone whom you love and how to keep one's dignity amidst the whirlwind of something as serious as metastatic cancer.
For all those reasons, I was honored when the younger Laszlo invited me to his father's memorial service at the Washington Coast. I was not the only from our clinic who had been touched by this family, and several members of our staff joined me at the memorial. These included two of our study coordinators who met Coach when he enrolled on clinical trials and my nurse.
We talked about how much Coach meant to us on the drive there. We also shared how much our interactions with him and his son had taught us about the importance of living a life one could be proud of like Coach.
Not surprisingly, the memorial was beautiful. The younger Laszlo was a wonderful host. He brought so much dignity to the proceedings and did not misplace a single word as he led us through the remembrance of his dad and finally the scattering of his ashes - fittingly in the shape of a heart.
All this time, I had thought of Coach as my teacher, but it was the younger Laszlo - a man not much younger than me - who was my teacher yesterday. He showed so much strength and character amidst this greatest loss of his life. I told Laszlo that I knew that he would be eventually be stronger after losing his dead. I also told him that I knew that he would live his life the way his father had - with virtue and compassion and comfort in the fact that if he could survive his dad's passing, he could survive anything.
Afterwards, my team and I stopped off at local bar on the way home. We all raised a glass to Laszlo the older and the younger. What a life we have a chance to live. What tremendous families whom we get to know. What amazing role models these men and women are - these patients, these heroes, these life teachers.
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