I was shocked when I saw George Morgan at the U.S. Open Tennis tournament in New York last week.<\/p>\n
One, because I didn\u2019t peg George for a tennis fan.<\/p>\n
And two, because George is dead.<\/p>\n
He passed away a few days after Christmas in 2022. He was 88.<\/p>\n
I have several fond memories of \u201cMr. Morgan,\u201d as we called him when he coached in the Pittston Little League. One is the day when as a goofy little kid of about 8 years old, I came walking around the press box with a big smile on my face (for what reason I have no idea) and Mr. Morgan threw his arms around me in a warm hug and said, \u201cWhy are you smiling like that?\u201d<\/p>\n
I was a lousy player but a good smiler, and it felt good that a coach not only recognized this but seemed to appreciate it.<\/p>\n
That was more than 65 years ago, and I obviously never forgot it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing\u201d him at the Open sent me off in a delightful reverie about that moment. Even though it was not George Morgan I saw.<\/p>\n
The guy sure looked like him at first. But when I took another glance, I realized he didn\u2019t resemble George all that much.<\/p>\n
This should have come as a surprise. But it didn\u2019t. See, this is just the latest episode in a series of phenomena that began about five years ago, and I have yet to figure out.<\/p>\n
A while back, as I sat down to compose yet another eulogy, I found myself writing: \u201cThat little kid in \u2018The Sixth Sense\u2019 movie sees dead people. I write about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought it was clever but as time went on, I began to see it as somewhat flippant and felt bad about it. While I\u2019ve written several eulogies since, I never again made that disrespectful, as I saw it, statement.<\/p>\n
Then, something happened. While I continued to occasionally write about dead people, I too started seeing them.<\/p>\n
It always goes the same. I see someone I know. I get excited and look forward to talking with them. Then it dawns on me that they are no longer with us. (I may have even attended their funeral.) I look again and the person bears little or no resemblance to the person I took them for. It leaves me a little sad and more than a little bewildered.<\/p>\n
Until today, I\u2019ve told few people about this.<\/p>\n
The first time it happened was in 2021 when I saw Jerry Allardyce at Planet Fitness. This was about a year after he died. I had always been drawn to his kindly face and took a few steps toward him before he stopped looking like Mr. Allardyce. I\u2019ve had amble opportunities since to tell his son, Dr. Tom Allardyce, about this but never did. I hope hearing it pleases him.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen others at Planet Fitness, months and often years after they passed. I\u2019m not sure any of them frequented Plant Fitness when alive, but it doesn\u2019t matter. I see them and almost just as quickly don\u2019t. Jimmy Deice comes to mind. And Mark Rostkowski (No, it wasn\u2019t his twin brother Mike. I know the difference), and Donald \u201cButch\u201d Searfoss, former owner of LaBarre\u2019s Printing in West Pittston, who died before Planet Fitness opened.<\/p>\n
I did happen to see one such person in a place where he truly belonged \u2026 if he were still alive. I attended a funeral at St. Barbara\u2019s Church, the former St. Anthony\u2019s, in Exeter, and as I waited for Mass to begin, I spotted Father Michael Finn walking down the side aisle. \u201cWhy is he not on the altar?\u201d I thought. \u201cAnd why is he not wearing his vestments?\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer was clear. It wasn\u2019t him.<\/p>\n
I never know when or where I am going to see someone back from the dead for just a second or two. Sheila McGarry in the parking lot at Minooka Pastry Shop. I even waved before she didn\u2019t look like Sheila anymore. And my old friend Joe Leone at the Grande Restaurant. Could have sworn it was him.<\/p>\n
As I said, I don\u2019t know what to make of this. The only thing I can come up with is that by showing themselves ever so briefly in this unsettling yet somehow comforting fashion, is the departed\u2019s way of saying, \u201cDon\u2019t worry about me. I am fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sure want that to be the case.<\/p>\n
In fact, I\u2019m going to say it is.<\/p>\n
So, if after I leave this earth, you should happen to see my face in another\u2019s, please remember this column, and know wherever I am, I am telling you my soul is at peace.<\/p>\n
And maybe enjoying a warm hug from George Morgan.<\/p>\n
Ed Ackerman writes The Optimist every Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was shocked when I saw George Morgan at the U.S. Open Tennis tournament in New York last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[803,1559,28,178,180,179,25220],"class_list":["post-284956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-luzerne-county","tag-opinion","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-the-optimist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}