Dick Vasella

Life is short. Our hearing aid guy, Dick Vasella, demonstrated this fact day before yesterday when he died suddenly of a heart attack. One minute he was fine, the next minute, well, he was not with us anymore. I met Dick when I first came to Portland. He worked for some hearing aid company that I found in the phone book. I took my father there to get some sort of repair done and Dick was friendly and professional. I immediately liked him. When he left that outfit and went into business by himself, we followed him. He worked out of his house, which was the house that he grew up in. It was less than a mile from our house so it was very convenient to drive my father over there. Later, when my father became more difficult to deal with (he suffered from dementia), Dick made housecalls. I always appreciated that.

Dick was a musician, a trumpet player. He had lost hearing from standing in front of a drum for months and years on end while playing the trumpet in a band. Because of this hearing loss, he learned all about hearing aids. He was passionate about helping musicians retain their hearing before hearing loss occurred. I never hesitated to refer friends to him for hearing needs. Howard became a customer of his, and so did my housemate, Stephen.

Dick was in his fifties, like the rest of us. That’s what makes it so stunning to us that he’s dead. He had just moved his business out of his house and had hired a couple of employees. He was planning on getting married in the summer. To paraphrase John Lennon, death is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.