i.m. Ronald Lee Herrick 1934-2010
Hats off to Ronald Lee Herrick, the older, more serious one
whose twin brother Richard was dying of kidney disease,
who said “I had heard of such things, but it seemed in the realm of science fiction,”
who was prepared to undergo a “mutilation procedure”,
who spent five and a half hours on the operating table,
whose mother, Marjorie, worked in the George Foss book store on Court Street,
who had reciprocal skin grafts to prove he and Richard were identical,
who said “I’d had an appendectomy, and I hadn’t much liked that,”
whose transplanted kidney helped Richard live for another eight years,
who went back to college after just two weeks,
who changed the meaning of primum non nocere,
who taught school for 37 years in Northborough, Massachusetts,
who said, when Richard ordered him home, “I am here and I am going to stay”
and, with that, quietly led us all into uncharted territory.