Extra Perspective

Evanston RoundTable, March 18, 2021

I emailed this recently to my dear friend Fran:

1. Somehow my Apple ID got screwed up.
2. Many Apple phone calls and technicians later, it cannot be fixed without…
3. Appointment Friday afternoon at Apple store to wipe clean phone & computer & restore both to “factory settings.” I liken this to a double lobotomy, or possibly an Ishiguro novel.
4. I’m transferring my phone calendar to a paper calendar in case they can’t restore my calendar & contacts (and everything else) (God forbid).
5. I notice that I have your birthday on April 24 and April 25. Unless you were born at the stroke of midnight, this cannot be.
6. Please advise.

Fran wrote back:

“OMG! Everyone’s nightmare :(
April 24 is the day.”

I’ve known Fran since first grade. We’ve actually drawn closer in the last 20 or 25 years as I always make it a point, when I’m in New York City, to visit her at her upper west side apartment. Many’s the time we’ve gone out for lunch nearby or hiked through Central Park. The thing is, with respect to her sympathetic response to my tech issues, she is currently battling cancer. That puts my trivial and decidedly non-life-threatening problems in some kind of perspective.

I mentioned this to my wife. She pointed out that her dear friend, a college roommate and truly wonderful person who died from cancer in 2004 at the age of 57, used to say that just because she was sick didn’t mean she didn’t want to hear what other people were dealing with.

Yet more perspective.