Andrzej (pronounced ahn-zjay) was not movie star beautiful. He would be the first to admit that in the wry, self deprecating way he always talked. But if you are already behind his glasses into his bright, shining eyes, one saw a burning curiosity about life, who refused to be deleted.
He was fascinated by all things military. When we first met, he bombarded me with questions and I had flown from aircraft described in the return to the last detail, every aircraft, helicopters, tanks and artilleryPiece in the Polish army - all areas in halting, but precise technical English. He was literally a walking edition of Jane's series of military weapons.
Andrzej was admitted to the University of Warsaw, but when school started in September last year, he was not there. Instead, he was in hospital awaiting a decision over life and death of someone he had never met. You see, he suffers from an immune system disorder that had plagued him since his childhood. In layman's terms, he wassusceptible to every disease and every virus that came his way. To add his troubles, he had contracted hepatitis, and the doctors told him he would not live much longer without a new liver. The fact that a transplant from someone who thought of the deceased.
I suspect the system for the management of organ donors in Poland is not better nor worse than in other developed countries. It is monitored by the government and usually drags on, that things happen slowly, but surely. But timing is everythingLife, and as Andrzej, the donor list, something happened - something complicated and very political - and the system to a standstill. No one knew when the donors would reappear. Meanwhile, Andrzej, waiting for his future uncertain.
15. August is Army Day in Poland. The Poles call it "The Feast of the Miracle on the Vistula" - a day in the early 1920s, when Marshal Pilsudski with a greatly inferior force drove the Soviet army from the river and thenback in Russia, Poland in order to secure the borders. Every year there is a parade in downtown Warsaw packed with troops, military equipment and a flyby of planes and helicopters. Andrzej was home for a rare day in the hospital and asked me to take him to see it. But when the time came to leave, he was too weak to walk. Instead, we saw on television at home.
It was a bitter afternoon. As we watched the parade, Andrzej provided a running commentary, and I sat clutching a piece ofPaper he had written, stating the names of everything we saw - all in English, of course. Sometime after a flyover of MIG 29s and F-16, I gave him an honorary fighter pilot. It was all I could do to think about. When the parade was over, Andrzej began to weaken and rose fever. His mother brought him to the hospital shortly thereafter.
All that has happened over a year ago. Since then, another Armed Forces Day Parade come and gone. But Andrzej was not there, so you see it becauseAfter a long and agonizing wait until the liver he needed so badly that he died from complications of organ transplantation. The burning curiosity about life, who refused to be deterred forever dimmed.
I do not know why God allows some people to live and die sentenced to others. What I know is that Andrzej was my friend - and I miss him very much.
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