Thus Monique Lapidaire with feeling when we met at Benjamin’s for lunch earlier today. My beloved and her husband were next to us. Distressed by the infirmity of Ivo Vrtarić, our common friend, she saw me as someone special. “I see Ivo and you as Croatians of incredible strength,” she explained during the lunch. Uneasy as I was about the compliment, I turned to Ivo’s predicament. His stroke has left all of his friends pretty confused. Death is in the air, and we are grasping for straws. “Don’t die!” is a common cry.