RIP Daniel

Daniel Harkavy passes

I met Daniel Harkavy only last year. It was during the UFT campaign, the one with Unity, ABC, and ARISE. I think I first met him at an ABC signing event in Bayside. He told me he was happy we were having it there. He said he was ill, and no longer traveling very far from home if he could help it.

That said, he managed to travel farther when he saw fit. I know he was absolutely overjoyed attending a concert with his wife a few months back. I saw him sometimes at RTC meetings in Manhattan. He volunteered to check people in. He told me he read everything I wrote. I hope he knows I’m writing this. Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote somewhere, in one of his many books, that when we speak of the dead, they dance up in heaven.

My first significant interactions with Daniel were when he started texting or emailing me about the Delegate Assembly. He was assigned to communicate with a group of retirees, and I happened to be in his group. I was a little surprised to be advised on how to vote. I told him so, and asked who was sending him this stuff. He told me he was part of a WhatsApp group or something. We continued conversing about other things until only a few weeks ago.

Daniel died late last month at the age of 63. I was quite surprised. He was not old enough to be on Medicare, but somehow managed to get on it as a result of his condition.

He’d had cancer. Clearly it was a bad one. He’d spoken to me about his condition, but I had no idea just how far along he was. He told me the doctors were trying something but he was less than optimistic. Perhaps I should’ve known. Perhaps I didn’t want to face it. I’ve had cancer myself, and no matter what you see me write here, about anyone at all, I would never, ever wish it on my worst enemy.

Daniel had resigned from our RTC Executive Board as he was sick. He’d told me so, but continued to function in his role of alerting retiree delegates. I guess that suggested, to me at least, that he had longer than he did.

I first got to know Daniel during the last campaign. He was friendly with those of us in both ABC and ARISE. He planned to run on both tickets. However, ARISE would not agree to let anyone do that. He stayed with ABC both because we’d not placed restrictions on him, and also because he felt we had a better chance of winning.

From conversing with him, I quickly knew Daniel was quite intelligent. He’d taught chemistry at Brooklyn Tech, which in itself kind of blows my mind. I can’t fathom chemistry, let alone teaching it to some of the brightest kids anywhere.

Fortunately for us, Daniel was by no means restricted to chemistry as a topic. We formed a relatively modern relationship after the election. It was like the kind I see my daughter and students have, and centered on texting. Maybe we have young souls. Whether or not that’s true, Daniel had a quick and ready wit. He and I went back and forth on things.

More seriously, we discussed health care and regulations. Daniel knew everything about them. He was acutely aware, for example, that there was a $2,000 cap on Medicare Part D prescription expenses. He’d managed to meet it in weeks. He also knew exactly how to do the paperwork on the convoluted SHIP $105 co-pay refund.

He told me it took him a few hours. As he used doctors from the same medical org I did, he tried to help me use their MyChart to do the paperwork. I suppose I should have counted myself lucky when I discovered I didn’t have enough visits to make using it worthwhile. (Regardless, I spent hours working on it, and gave up when my time no longer seemed worth wasting over a potential 105 bucks.)

Daniel was very active on Facebook. He found all the best memes and shared them. I didn’t hesitate to steal them, and you’ve probably seen one or two I stole from him used to illustrate this column.

He’s gone way too soon. I will miss his wisdom and counsel. Rest in peace, Daniel.