It is indeed a sad story. It recalled Thomas Mann’s novel of a Lübeck merchant family, Buddenbrooks. While history does not literally repeat itself, human nature is such that it often seems that way.

I weep for the Irbys, as well as Dr. Mark Pogue and his fiancee, Dr. Lisa Dedousis, neither of whom I knew, who lost their lives in the accident. None of them deserved that outcome.

Tags: irby, pogue, Mann, buddenbrooks, Dedousis