Dum Spiro, Spero

It is my sad editorial duty to acknowledge that Professor David Hadden, previous editor of this Journal died earlier this year. As a previous editor he has his obituary published here and I thank Professor Patrick Bell for rising to this sad task so diligently. David bore his final illness with great dignity, clearly determined that while he was alive, he would live (dum vivimus, vivamus). The journey to the undiscovered country, was for him, I think, a long-planned walk, stopping only briefly to part the veil, and walk on through. I can see him now, peering through those distinctive glasses and continuing a line of searching Socratic and indeed Jesuitical questioning with some minor celestial official. Looking intently at his subject, finger tips apposed and saying, " Yes, young man, perhaps. Think it through though, think it through. " I was involved peripherally in his care and in due course, I received a letter from him. I took it as a letter of absolution. I am sure like all us of when we look after friends and colleagues as patients, there is always a moment of dread when unfortunate news has to be delivered. His letter of thanks concluded: 'Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow will take thought for the things of itself.' (Matthew 6: 34) As one of the Journal board members reminded me recently, " He was a truly benevolent person. I will always remember his absolute concern on my first day that there was no one cooking either breakfast or dinner for the house officers in Musgrave and Clarke House. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the shoe-shining service had long stopped. (Dr Gerry Hanna: personal communication). David, for me, imbued the, possibly now unfashionable philosphy of William Osler, who said, " You are in this profession as a calling, not a business; as a calling which exacts from you at every turn self-sacrifice, devotion, love and tenderness to your fellow men. Once you get down to a purely business level, your influence is gone and the true light of your life is dimmed. You must work in the missionary spirit, with a breadth of charity that raises you far above the petty jealousies of life. " 1 I went to visit David last May, as I needed some pressing editorial advice. I had written my forthcoming editorial, which …