Hugh Anderson, who was most recently The Gazette’s seniors columnist, died Wednesday from retroperitoneal sarcoma, a rare form of cancer.
There’s an obituary in Thursday’s paper, but the more interesting pieces are the ones written by Anderson himself, who explored the issue of death in his columns recently.
Anderson disappeared from the paper briefly in 2007, and returned to write a series of articles about the death of his wife and the process of grieving the loss of a loved one. He disappeared again last fall, returning in January with a piece about his own cancer diagnosis, knowing his life was very likely coming to an end.
With that piece, the column was transformed into The Next Chapter, expanding to include baby boomers (who don’t like to think of themselves as seniors yet) and including pieces from other writers.
Anderson’s last column, about euthanasia, was published on Feb. 15.
UPDATE: Gazette Arts & Life editor Michael Shenker uses the space once occupied by Anderson’s column to write about him and about death.
My deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. Uncle Hughie was my instructor for half of a course at Concordia (business journalism). I once asked him for investment advice and he told me free advice is worth what you pay for it. But then he went on to tell me that gold was going to hit $1000 – and this was when it was around $600. I didn’t follow his advice, but I sure wish I had!
I had the pleasure of meeting, interviewing and speaking with Hugh on several occasions and will always remember him as kind, generous and caring.
He seemed like a fine man overall. Though he was full of shit about euthanasia. The thought of anyone telling me I have to go on living in suffering or debility is nothing but religion-inspired meddling. Unfortunately we still haven’t eliminated that crap.