ロン・ヤス関係
Wow. Last night, they just said Ronald Reagan was failing rapidly and had weeks to months. I was surprised that his death wasn’t one of the main headlines on the Nikkei at first, in the moment before I remembered that a US President who went out of office a decade and a half ago will not make the most important story abroad. Now, it’s been moved up the page. Maybe someone tipped them off that the last standing superpower won’t be able to think about anything else today?
The article does mention something that’s not coming up in the American press much amid the stories about his interactions with Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev: In the ’80’s, the Japanese economic bubble was still expanding, and trade negotiations were very, very dicey. Reagan’s rapport with Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone was known in the press here as the “Ron-Yasu Relationship.” I’m sure the phrase was used in a somewhat bemused tone back then; it’s as informal-sounding in Japanese as in English. Today, it sounds rather tender.
And while I know it’s not intentional, leave it to CNN to be interrupting its retrospective on Reagan with commercials for a biopic of Che Guevara. Cht!
My wee wifey is a geriatric nursing aide, third shift. I hear a lot about old people’s deaths. Once I heard he was critically ill my expectation was that it was in fact final crisis.
I’ve also dealt with deaths in the family, both sudden and drawn out. Once you know it is time to say goodbye, more time is no blessing.
Yeah, I can see that. I could also see how, if taking care of him wasn’t a strain and he wasn’t suffering, it might be hard to let go. I hope it doesn’t sound ghoulish, because I don’t mean it that way, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Mrs. Reagan declined pretty rapidly herself. Undying love or no, caregiving is exhausting, and she’s in her 80’s. Not that I wish her any harm, but you could hardly blame her for feeling that her life’s work is done.