The Passing of Para Das / Don

Hi Everyone,

I have very sad news about our old friend, Don C. whom we knew a long time ago as Para Das. He passed away Monday, March 31, 2003

As many of you know, Don had been living with AIDS for more than a decade. He never gave in or gave up. Like any Sagittarius, he was always shooting for the next step. He was very involved with the Church of Religious Science (Science of Mind) and had become a counselor. His was working toward becoming a minister.

An opportunity came up and he jumped on it — to go to the Ukraine for three months while working in two of the church’s facilities there. He came to stay with me Feb. 14-18 before he left and was incredibly excited about this new adventure. He left February 26, I think, and headed for the Ukraine. Three days after he got to Cherkasy, a “sinus infection” that had been bothering him hit him hard, and he was in bed for 11 days. Then he was on his feet again, into the swing of things. He said he felt okay. He sent photos and stories. He liked the people, his apartment, his assignment. Everything was new and exciting. He said he’d been consuming a ton of borsch and caviar and loving it.

Then he took ill again. It was a lung infection, not a sinus infection, that had been brewing. He was taken to the hospital where the doctors had a very hard time stabilizing him. He passed three days later.

It is wonderful that he got to do something he had always wanted to do, something he felt was perfect for him. And he had the satisfaction of seeing it through.

I’m thankful he and I reconnected a few years ago and that I got to know him again, and share our lives right up to the end of his.

-Penny (Quota)