He would often say that I was his best friend. In his mid eighties to mid nineties, he had outlived many best friends over the years. Yet, I always felt special, and not left-overs from a long and dedicated life. He shared a few times that many of his friends were unhappy about his relationship with that radical Dr. Bailey. He would always respond that he loved me as a true friend. They saw a very conservative Christian who struggled in his own eyes with accepting lesbian relationships (once never shared, his last years on the board included a large number of outed lesbians) and people of the Jewish Faith. He was born to German emigrants in 1918, while his father was in Germany, helping to restart copper mining. He worked for Henry Ford who is a famous anti-semite, and he had very little exposure to Jewish people in Southern, white Medford. Over considerable time, he made peace with his failings and was gentle and kind to everyone.
Doctors in my profession, who held to strong Republican values, admiring Jesse Helms and. Nature Cure ran a parallel course within both the Catholic and the Protestant faiths. Orin Hatch and Strom Thurman. So I too wondered at times how Ralph and I became best friends and talked many times a week for hours, for many years. He told me that he recognized me as a kindred "old soul" when he first set eyes upon me. It would be 20 years before our lives would become so enter-twined. He had assured me that he would live at least 8 years more than he did, but the burdens of his life accelerated his decline. The death of his wife, again sooner than they both thought, was probably the fatal blow in his life. Unexpected, but also a blow to his life-long abilities as a healer and a doctor. He so often said "God gave us friends to make up for our family and relatives", and he hadn't had a family for decades as his daughters hated each other, and their inflexible estrangement was waring on both Ralph and Gen.
Ralph was a truly remarkable man, who had a constant thirst for "the truth". And an ability to immediately alter his ways. He had an incredible mind, and knew so many biochemical pathways that were beyond the abilities of many of our peers. He served in many ways as a historical encyclopedia of knowledge and events, especially around nature cure and the bible. In spite of our considerable differences in politics, we shared so many personal traits and gifts that we both sought each others friendship and company. He took me as an equal, but I took him as a mentor, and gave him my upmost attention, respect and love. This is just a prologue for future blogs in theMentorDude, as I hope to share many of the pearls that Ralph Weiss shared with me.
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