
Jack Rhatigan is one of the Twin Cities' great bridge players - in every way. Smart, talented, funny, nice to all in our bridge community ... Even if you dug deep, I think you'd have a very tough time finding anyone with a negative comment about Jack.
Unfortunately, however, like the rest of us - Jack is not immune from the passing of time. And because of that reality of life, Chip and Teri at the TCBC passed on this message below from Shannon Rhatigan, Jack's daughter.
Jack was in the hospital from August 16 – 23, then in transitional care. He’ll be moving back into his assisted living apartment with his wife tomorrow morning. They’ll be hiring the assisted living facility to help a lot more than they had been.
Physically, he’s much better compared to when he entered the hospital. But his mental capacity took a big hit with whatever infection he had, and it seems unlikely that his memory is going to come back. I don’t think that he’ll ever be able to play bridge again. Without my dad to navigate, my mom has given up driving so won’t be able to transport him anymore anyway.
Dad’s personality is still pretty much intact, sense of humor and all. He knows his wife and children, but he often doesn’t remember the conversation you had three sentences ago. He can read words but his reading comprehension is almost zero. I suspect that his memory of his bridge friends comes and goes—it doesn’t seem like there’s a hard date where his memory fails.
Thank you,
Shannon Rhatigan
Shannon and I exchanged emails about her dad. I inquired about calling him. But, Shannon thought that it likely he simply could not hear well enough for a phone conversation.
Thus, if you're up for it, perhaps a visit to see Jack would be wonderful. Or, you could send him a card! If you'd like to do either, do let me know and I'll get more info from Shannon about how to accomplish this.
In the meantime, I'm sure that many of you will join me in sending best wishes for Jack to be as well and as happy as is possible under the circumstances. Thank you!