Letter from a former patient

(Submitted by Geroge Stein.)

About twenty years ago I was an unhappy in-patient at Montefiore Hospital. I heard Dr. Kurt Elias being paged. I picked up the phone and left a message for Dr. Elias to call me. Instead, he came to see me immediately and we reestablished our friendship, which had begun when I arrived in the U.S. on April 8, 1940, a Tuesday. On Friday my friend Hans Weiss (HAWEI) took me to his Youth Group, the “Free Austrian Youth.” The clubhouse was in the west nineties. It was great for young “refugees” to meet and make friends with the same background. There I met Kuli. Then came the war and most of the boys were inducted into the “Service.” I was discharged and completed my schooling in 1950, and married my wife, Carol, in November. We took a “garden apartment” in Kew Garden Hills. There I met Kuli again. He lived in the next “court” with his family. We saw each other frequently, but jobs, careers and moving to other parts of NY made is lose touch. About ten years ago Hawei suggested we meet occasionally for lunch with Kuli. That started the next phase of our friendship. We met for lunch every 2 months at the same restaurant on 71st street. Then came that very sad day when I saw his obituary in the NY times.

George Stein