Monday 6 November 2023

Vale Harvey Blume






Last week when I heard the news, it was about 3.30 in the morning. I was having a sleepless night and I wrote this, perhaps presciently. After all, it had been more than a decade since we corresponded. 

All kinds of thoughts cycle through my brain in these dark days, and finally thoughts of Harvey Blume popped up. He and I corresponded intensively for a year at least from 1997, and intermittently for the next 10. Not a lot about about Autism and ND, mostly about wide-ranging issues of current politics or the arts. We fell out a long time ago mostly over Middle East Politics... not an unusual thing to happen ... and other things which I may write about, and no, we were not "in a relationship".  Still, over the years I have occasionally thought to myself... "I wonder what Harvey is up to"  ... and I go check out his Facebook page.
But this time, I had a different, an unexpected thought. "I wonder if Harvey is still alive"... and then ... this ... what came up first on google...

Obituary...

Harvey Blume is a common name in America, surely, I tell myself ...
I'm gutted

Harvey had the most brilliant intellect of anyone I have ever met. He had a dazzling mind and way with words. I visited him in Boston at a time I can never forget, just 2 weeks after 9/11. 1. Took this pic in a cafe called "Carberries" near where he lived. 
He was a shining star even in the intellectual hothouse that is New York-Boston and a great, great loss
In the traditional Jewish words of condolence, I wish all Harvey's near and dear, "a long life"
I was not able to repost Harvey's Obituary here but it can be found on the Boston Globe website https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/harvey-blume-obituary?id=53455963

 

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