Category: Aging

Sharon Duckman, 72

When people ask how long we have been married, I always say, “not long enough.” Without her, I would be a homeless person. Ageless. I cannot live without her, adoring even the difficult moments.

When I was suspended from the bench, preceding my removal and the end of my judicial career, I tried to go back to work after spending 7 months with her, full time. People asked how I felt, not really caring, but out of politeness. I said, “…, frankly I miss the time I got to spend with my wife.”

We moved and stayed together. We have moved a few more times and stayed together. Now we have sickness and injury. We live in a place we don’t like and doesn’t like us, and we are still together.

Lorin Duckman, 74 Years Old

Celebrating a birthday, especially one in the 7os, brings reflections on the past and projections about the future. The good news: my blood, medicated as it is, tests perfect. The bad news: my blood, medicated as it is, has rejected the Moderna Covid vaccine. So, a very happy day, followed by a depressing Doctor visit. Such is life.

I don’t have much of a voice anymore, my career and reputation having been wrecked in 1998. I try to do acts of kindness, everyday which is not always easy. You should too.

Dick Allen, Dead

Dick Allen deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Baseball deserves to be in the hall of shame. How did Corona virus stop a virtual vote?
When I attended Penn, I saw him play many times. Gave the usher a dollar and he let me sit in a box on first base side. No one went to games. A few times I think he smiled over at me. I cheered when he hit, caught and just stood around fixing the dirt.

Alan Mark Ulick, Died Yesterday


My cousin, Alan Ulick, the son of my Father’s sister Gert died in his home yesterday. His marital partner of 25 or so years, Harry Small, was at his bedside. I think he was 83. Very Sad.

On the wall in my gallery hangs a picture of his Mother and my Father when they were kids. I had a second image and decided to look him up and give it to him, along with a picture of our Grandmother, Hannah Duckman, after whom my Brother, Henry Hannah, and his Daughter, Hannah are named. This image was made in 1921.

Other than a brief meeting, a few minutes or less, in 1954, when he was a teenager and I was a kid, we had never seen or spoken to one another. This past winter, Google found him living nearby in Hollywood FL.

I called. We spoke. Alan and Harry came to our home for lunch. I learned about him. He learned about me from the internet (no time to explain), plus I told him the little family history there is of the remaining Duckman family.

I gave him the pictures, an outdated family genealogical history done by cousins Jerry Winter and Herb Sumliner (in which he is named) and shot this image, along with a few others. We hugged and they left.

We agreed we would get together again, but his illness and treatments prevented it. I would have liked knowing him better.

 

 

 

Duckman Tilts Left

I don’t gamble and I cannot play sports. I have problems with the political process, having been killed by the system, a condition that bars me from commenting and having my thoughts considered. I have basic health care and maybe just enough money to make it. My cancer doctor says my immune system is working, but I am not prepared to test it. Not going to a gym or a night club. But I do miss museums, watching people who know more or less than I do about art, look at framed images, sculptures and whatever they call the rest. So I wonder.

Duckman Fights CLL and Corona

I fight the battle of Corona and CLL from all fronts. Keeping my mind active as a photog, my body strong by walking and biking and my system enriched. Who do the voodoo that you do so well. We all be human, mortal people, whose life spans happen when they happen. Keep the pills coming and the vodka chilled.