Life Lessons

My Tributes to a Centenarian Friend Who Died on New Year’s Eve.

I initially did not know what to do with over 5,000 books but I found a way after a conversation with a lawyer.

Starting the new year with grief was a sentimental process for me.

Losing a long-term soul mate and a metophorical angel can make a mental and emotional impact on many people. Grief is a long-term process and is part of our lives.

Scientific data shows that all of us will die one day. Based on current stats, no one lives over 150 years.

Since this is an uncontrollable fact of life, knowing this constraint and accepting it always helps me in my grief process.

I focus on only what we can control and change based on my learning from the stoic philosophy.

My Fond Memories of Jeremy

Jeremy was born on 31 December 1919 as a deaf child in Australia and died on 31 December 2021 as a special friend in my life. His parents died over a half-century ago. He survived his life with a trust fund created by his parents.

He dedicated his life to studying humanity and supporting his local community with charitable activities. He did not earn a single cent from his contributions to society. But he gained many intangible benefits, which made him a centenarian.

When he was 80 years old, 22 years ago, I met Jeremy in our local sauna, which was introduced to me by Janine and Algor. Unfortunately, Janine recently died, but Algor, another centenarian friend, is still living, as mentioned in a previous story.

I received a surprising and unexpected call from a solicitor yesterday, which sounded like a shock initially. He said, “First, I am not sure if you are informed of the sad news that Jeremy has died. He spoke of you with affection on numerous occasions. Please accept my condolences. The reason I called you is to discuss a point in his Will.”

According to his family lawyer, Jeremy has requested his 5,000+ books and journals be transferred to me upon his death. I did not know anything about it. It was a lightning strike in my psyche. Obviously, the lawyer felt my feelings on the phone and asked whether I was okay and if he would be happy to call me back later.

I felt a huge knot in my throat and couldn’t say a word for a minute or so. Then, I regained my composure and continued the conversation. When he asked me what to do with honoring the Will, I did not know and had a blank mind.

The first question coming to my mind was how to fit such massive amounts of books and scientific journals into my house. I already have a room assigned to my books collected over a half-century.

Then a bright idea came to me. Thanking the lawyer for touching base and his kindness in discussing this point, I advised him to donate his books to Jeremy’s local library. The lawyer liked the idea and informed me to send him a written confirmation. It was a surprising and unexpected conversation on New Year’s eve, just before starting 2022.

As soon as I hung up the phone, my grief process started. I am familiar with this process since I lost my father, several relatives, colleagues, and recently my best friend, Janine. The first action in my grief process was sudden sadness which I immediately recognized as a burning sensation in my heart.

Then, the visual stories of my soulmate came to my psyche like a movie. I visualized a decade of information within a few minutes. I experienced and observed multiple feelings in this short time frame, from the most negative to the most positive in the range.

Experiencing such mixed emotions during this period created noticeable stress in my body and brain. So then, the first approach was using my mental health first aid kit and finding an appropriate tool to address this acute stress. Recently, my first go-to-kit was meditation. So I started my meditation by clearing my stressed brain.

After meditation, my grief continued. We cannot just move on when we lose our loved ones. The process takes a long time. We never get rid of grief for losing loved ones, from my experience. We learn to live with it. But I use unique methods that I developed over the years.

I plan to share my grief-handling technique in another article as it is comprehensive. I’d like to give you a few glimpses of the last two decades of my perspectives and the life lessons I learned from my interactions with Jeremy.

The initial communication with Jeremy was challenging for me. I did not know sign language, and our communication was based on body language and mainly on writing notes on paper or a smartphone text app. However, Jeremy later taught me sign language for deaf people, which I couldn’t be fluent in, but I managed basic conversations. It was a beautiful addition to my cognitive reserves.

Over our conversations, Jeremy told me he was pre-diabetic. It was serendipitous as I researched the effects of diabetes on the human brain and investigated potential methods for neurodegenerative diseases, especially dementia. I

completed my literature review on Alzheimer’s and saw lights on the healing effects of ketosis on struggling brain cells at that time.

Unlike negative beliefs on social media and even misleading scientists, I firmly believe that ketogenic diets have remarkable effects on brain chemistry and longevity. I have read thousands of papers and book chapters published since the 1920s.

When Jeremy learned about these studies, he was amused, telling me that he was just one year old. I will never forget his surprised smile during this conversation with him.

Not to my surprise, his physician immediately rejected his idea of getting started with a ketogenic diet. However, as Jeremy couldn’t articulate his situation with sign language, he kindly asked me whether I could visit his doctor next time I accompanied him. I graciously accepted the offer and joined the conversation.

Despite his initial reaction caused by his lack of information about ketogenic diets, which he confused with ketoacidosis, his family doctor was open-minded. When I mentioned my research credentials, he was happy to listen to me about the cognitive benefit of ketosis and fasting. He was convinced by the articulation of the topic and agreed to refer Jeremy to a certified dietician in a ketogenic diet.

I was grateful for the acceptance and support of this caring medical doctor. He told me that he wished he had studied nutrition in medical school. He had only a single lecture in his six years of medical education. He was pleased to learn not to confuse ketosis with ketoacidosis, usually caused by Type 1 diabetes when patients produce no insulin.

Jeremy’s dietician created a well-designed and customized ketogenic diet suiting his lifestyle and genetics. He loved the taste of food. His favorite was sunny side eggs, fatty grass-fed beef, and salmon. Then later, he learned about organ meats, which significantly impacted his medical conditions, as proven by his blood work. The dietician was very happy with his progress.

Additionally, the dietitian was excited by my teaching of cooking a ketogenic meal based on best cooking and nutritional practices. For example, I taught Jeremy initially to use an electric oven instead of frying meat in harmful oil.

I also taught him the carnivore lifestyle based on my experience. He found the meals delicious and nutritious. I helped him not use processed meat but introduced him to purchasing fresh grass-fed meat ethically produced by his local butcher.

In a year, his blood sugar and insulin resistance normalized. He was not pre-diabetic anymore. He lost 30 pounds in a year like Eliza. When we revisited his doctor after a year, his doctor was amazed by the results. This progress inspired his doctor, who wanted to learn more about this diet.

I provided his doctor with my comprehensive literature search on the topic. His doctor called a few weeks later, informing him he had started studying nutrition, especially the ketogenic diet and fasting regime. I introduced his doctor to credible functional medicine doctors from my circles.

After seven years, this medical doctor became a functional medicine doctor with a Ph.D. degree in nutrition science. He opened a clinic to support his patients struggling with diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and dementia.

This doctor was one of the contributors to the healing of Jennifer’s brain fog. He was also a catalyst in transforming this metabolically disadvantaged single mum who became a unicorn. Inspired by Alberto, Jeremy never smoked and never consumed alcohol. But he tried pure nicotine like Alberto and me occasionally.

When I joined his doctor’s graduation ceremony to complete his Ph.D. in the same university I graduated from earlier, he told me that Jeremy was a serendipitous encounter for his doctor to get this advanced degree. Jeremy helped his doctor in analyzing his Ph.D. thesis and volunteered to use his clinical data in his research.

I will never forget this historical moment cemented in my brain. Jeremy did not hear the sound of a standing ovation when his doctor read his thesis abstract in front of 25,000 people with his deaf ear, but he sensed the feelings in the atmosphere resulting in tears in his brown eyes.

The ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting, and occasional long-term fasting that he practiced under medical supervision and control had a tremendous effect on his longevity of Jeremy. His cognitive skills amazed me. With his permission, I used his cognitive patterns in my case studies, reflecting insights for people with disabilities, especially the deaf and mute.

Since he was deaf by birth, I noticed that his visual memories developed significantly. He had a photographic memory. He was the fastest reader in my circles, processing visual information faster than anyone else I knew.

When I recommended a book to him, he informed me about finishing it in a day and writing me a summary of the book. He offered to help with my post-doctoral studies. Whenever I had a complex paper that required analysis, Jeremy reviewed it and sent the summary in an email.

This was a win-win for both of us. He loved my research topics in cognitive science, and I loved his unique perspectives and perceptions, which my other collaborators did not have.

I noticed that this capability loss hit me suddenly in my grief process. But I accepted it and showed gratitude to him in a self-conversation session that I used as a secondary method from the mental health first aid kit.

Since his doctor became a friend of mine, he wanted to use me as his interpreter in medical sessions, especially when he was discussing his bloodwork. I learned so much about his bloodwork during these sessions. They gave me insights into the secret lives of centenarians. This privileged information was priceless to me.

After experiencing significant improvements in my bloodwork and Jeremy’s on ketogenic diets and fasting, contrived academic papers like the ones I described here look ridiculous and give scientists a bad reputation. They have no genuine life experience, confusing people who need valuable tools to end their pain and suffering.

Another highlight of his life was the regular use of the sauna and cold showers, which significantly impacted his health and longevity. I believe his body activated autophagy regularly. Like Algor, he loved the sauna and cold showers and always hugged people in the venue.

He couldn’t speak and hear voices, but his body language and emotional maturity showed his affection and authenticity to people, so everyone trusted him. I have never seen anyone rejecting his hugs, including young women and men in the sauna.

When he hugged me each time, I felt remarkable stress relief in my body. I felt a healing power in his touch. When I mentioned this to Janine, she explained this esoteric knowledge to me from her decades of research in psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience. With his permission, Janine also used some patterns in her mental health research from Jeremy's mental health.

Henry, who helped me with my stolen car, also understood his healing capabilities of Jeremy and illuminated this mystical process. Every hug and handshake with Jeremy was a stress-relieving activity for me.

When he gently massaged my shoulders when I was teaching him computers, I felt euphoric. I want to introduce this unique mental health topic in another article.

As a real-estate guru, Algor helped Jeremy to purchase a retirement home. I helped him install productive IoT devices powered by artificial intelligence, which extended his capabilities and addressed his hearing issues.

I helped him clean by taking specks of dust from thousands of books in his colossal library. When I was doing this chore, I always serendipitously found books that I had heard about but couldn’t find in libraries during my studies. So his library became a serendipity machine for me. He generously allowed me to borrow his books.

In later years, I helped him catalog his books in a computer system by designing a customized program. A volunteer librarian from his community support team continued the process and procedure I started for him.

Jeremy had a fully automated and functional library after a few years. He loved using computers. So when I taught him about the Gutenberg project on the Internet, he had euphoric moments and kept hugging me.

The Internet opened a new door in his journey. I taught him to use personal computers and many applications designed for deaf people. I introduced him free museums, art galleries, and social media tools like YouTube to which he dedicated his last ten years and immensely enjoyed. He enjoyed watching documentaries with subtitles.

In addition, whenever he found exciting art artifacts, he shared them on his social mailing list that I helped him set up. Janine taught me that this mailing list I introduced was the most innovative and contributing factor to Jeremy’s longevity. She believed that this social reach and richness created new neural connections in his brain.

Jeremy did not experience any neurodegenerative disease. His cognitive reserves were remarkable. His metabolism was excellent. I believe he died due to aging. I will discuss this with his family members and find out the causes of his death.

I have many more memories that would not fit into this story, but I may mention them in my future articles as he enriched my mind and life with many fond memories that mainly resulted in great life lessons.

Writing this piece on the first day of 2022 was therapeutic for my grief of losing a soul mate. I hope you enjoy this story which might resonate with you and give insights into your grief process.

As I felt in the departure of Janine, I have burning feelings in my heart, but I also have bliss in another part, balancing the pain of grief. My bliss came from the belief that Jeremy lived a fulfilling life dedicating it to improving people’s lives. He left unforgettable legacies behind him.

I hope the books that we donate to the local library can give insights to the next generation. In my opinion, he served his purpose on this earth and now lives in peace in another dimension.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a happy and healthy New Year. I am feeling much better after penning and sharing this piece with you.

Besides aiming to increase the hormonal intelligence of my readers and writing about neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, acetylcholine, and norepinephrine, one of my goals as a writer is to raise awareness about the causes and risk factors of prevalent diseases that can lead to suffering and death for a large portion of the population.

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