Kudos

There was a person living in my apartment building up until today. His name was Meir, and he suffered from Asperger Syndrome, or so I think. I never really had a chance to ask his uncle (who looked after him), but the symptoms match.

I came back this afternoon from the Squash club and there were three police cars and an ambulance parked on the curve outside the building. I could see them taking his body away on one of those wheeled beds they have, all wrapped up in a white body bag.

Meir was an Icon in central Tel Aviv, where I live. Everyone knew him. Most of the day he’d prowl the streets, the eternal cigarette in his hand, repeating over and over the same lines with vehemence:

- “Stay healthy!”
- “Have a cigarette?”
- “I’m not a bad person!”
- “Do you love me?”

People used to call him “Meir- stay-healthy”. You could overhear a common conversation that would go:

- “Meir was restless last night”
- “Which Meir?”
- “Meir-stay-healthy”
- “Oh, Meir”

It was always funny seeing innocent passersby’s stumble into him in the neighborhood for the first time. They must have thought the devil himself came for a visit. He’d approach them, real close, and start repeating those lines over and over again.

Personally, I always thought he was a gentle soul. My wife used to say he’s kind of scary to bump into during the night and I’d always say to her – “He’s harmless”.

And he was.

Once, one of the neighbors in the building complained about him to the authorities and he was taken away for a couple of months. When he came back, he had a new line to his repertoire:

- “Abarbanel is bad”

Abarbanel is the name of a Mental Health Center. Don’t get me wrong, I am positive he was well taken care of by a dedicated staff but I guess he didn’t like it there.

I wouldn’t.

During the last month Meir looked worse each day. He was thinner, and you could hear him wheezing when he talked. He started cursing, which was previously rather rare.

One evening when I was coming home with my wife from a trip to Jerusalem (see my post about that in “Talk about a shitty week“) Meir swooped down upon us in the stairwell. He asked the usual questions, went through his usual lines.

He was wheezing. It was obvious he had trouble breathing. I guess the ever-present cigarette in his hand was finally catching up to him. I remember saying to my wife, “I don’t think Meir is going to last a lot longer”.

That was two days ago.
I think I’ll miss him.

Here is some info regarding Asperger Syndrome:
http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aswhatisit.html

פוסט זה פורסם בתאריך 9 בFebruary, 2007 בשעה 3:43 pm בנושאים just blogging. ניתן לעקוב אחרי התגובות בעזרת RSS תגובות. לא ניתן להגיב לפוסט.