The
world lost a good man a week ago. I did too. Pete Weiler was the best. He died
of cancer on his birthday, August 10. We had a relationship that
lasted almost eight years. Here was a man who was good, honest, caring, loving
and smart. And he refused to argue. How about that? We did well without
arguing. Old people can do that.
Pete
and I met in October, 2016, at a speed dating event held by the Madison Senior
Center. It didn’t take long for us to get acquainted. He was quiet and not
inclined to talk about his long life, and I managed to talk too much on our
dates. That was just one of our non-essential differences. Pete had a PhD in
physics and loved science. He spent many years working at writing software for
the University of Wisconsin. I used to say that his computer was his other
girlfriend. My English major and librarian background didn’t match his, but it
didn’t matter. We were great.
Who
was planning on dating through a pandemic? Covid 19 arrived in 2020. We had
been going to plays at Overture Center and American Players Theater. While we
skipped a lot of plays, we watched programs on his very large screen in his
living room. We brought carry out food to my kitchen. We played Scrabble,
Trivial Pursuit, and Nerts, a card game he taught me. That’s activity for
people who can’t go places for fear of spreading disease. As the pandemic
seemed to diminish, we went back to the plays.
Pete
has a loving, wonderful family. He has no children, but enjoys two brothers and
a sister, plus nieces and a nephew and their spouses and families. They get
together for birthdays and other events, and I have been included happily. Every
year Pete treated them to dinner and a play at American Players Theater in
Spring Green, which was well attended until this year when Pete was sick and
the others went to the play that was rained out. It was part of the ending of his
life.
Pete
went to the hospital where he was diagnosed with stage four bladder cancer and
some infections. He was in the hospital for two months and then days in the
nursing home at Oakwood, and never went home. His life ended. This wonderful
man was gone. I will miss him for a long time while being happy for the good
times we had together.
