This is not so much an obit., but rather a celebration of a life, a love.Charlene K. Scherr, 86, a retired, honored audiologist at Walter Reed Medical Hospital, died July 22 in hospice care for a lung condition.
She worked at Walter Reed her entire government career. For many years, she ran an aural rehab. program for new wearers of hearing aids on how to live in a hearing world.
One of her VIP students would sometimes call her for advice or information. A receptionist would interrupt her class lecture to announce that U.S. Surgeon General Koop was on the phone for Mrs. Scherr.
She was a mentor, teacher, and friend to the audiologists, who worked at the hospital.
At retirement, she got Army commander coins from the hospital and the Army medical command for the excellence of her work. She was also elected a fellow of the Military Audiology Association.
Raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio she fondly remembered her days in the Height High School chorus. She auditioned and failed to make. the Robert Shaw corral. She a good voice, which an illness later damaged.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, she traveled through Europe, and spent a year on a kibbutz in Israel.
She volunteered to pluck feathers from chickens, because that could be done early in the morning, before the heat of the day.
Returning home, she got a master’s degree in audiology from Western Reserve. On her first day of class, she met a fellow student, Iris Simpkins, who would become a lifelong friend.
They had Saturday sessions of lunch and hours of talk, with a few breaks for over 50 years. I never asked Charlene to give up an Iris lunch.
Charlene later worked as an audiologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Montreal, Canada, and even met the “Queen Mom,” the namesake of the hospital.
After several years in Montreal, she returned to Cleveland to teach a special education class.
She visited Iris in Washington, where her husband had joined the speech and hearing clinic at Walter Reed. Charlene did the same.
My hookup with Charlene also involved many accidents of life. I was a life-long stutterer which in many ways was a barrier at work and in my social life. Making first-time calls was a challenge.
While working at USIA, I enrolled in a pioneering stuttering program. My boss allowed me to use sick leave for the therapy.
After working many sessions with speech therapist Judy Smith. She asked me a personal question. Would I like to meet a woman, maybe just for coffee and talk. I immediately said ”yes,” even though I did not drink coffee.
The woman was Charlene. Judy had worked at Walter Reed when Charlene first worked there, and both lived in the same apartment development.
Our first phone call was magical. I think that I fell in love with her voice and conversation.
The first date was dinner with the Smiths. Charlene for the first and last time in our relationship, sacrificed her hair to ride in my MGB sports car with the top down. We later went to my apartment, where I showed the best slides from my European travels.
When we said goodbye, I touch her nose with a finger, and said: “I’ll be in touch.”
Here are two other firsts from our early dating.
The first kiss -- in her apartment while watching the movie ‘Inherit the Wind. There is some debate on who initiated the kiss.
The first Scrabble Game -- I was a great wordsmith, but that night on one of our early dates, Charlene was far ahead in points, when she claimed that I upset the board. Since then, my lifetime wins against her is ZERO. I am the Jeopardy master, except in kiddy lit.
Enough Char stories for now. All of you have fond memories of her.
She was a wonderful wife and a great mother. Her love for Josh and me had no limits. She had a strong sense of social responsibilities and norms, Her friendship had real meanings.
I will probably use email to respond to comments on my tribute. Charlene would have insisted that I write “thank you” cards.
Charlene loved driving. She felt more comfortable behind the wheel, especially in a big car. I’m a small car person. So she did all the in-the-area driving. Besides she was uneasy with my driving.
In retirement, she drove for worthwhile causes. She took Holocaust survivors to their medical appointments, and with me, delivered Kosher Meals-on-Wheels. She did the driving, and I did the schlepping.
She loved music, especially folk songs, Gilbert and Sullivan, and ABBA. At times, we had season tickets to the Arena Stage and the Roundhouse plays. Charlene was a non-stop book reader, and sometimes mom and Josh shared the same book interest.
When encouraged, Charlene would recite from memory and with emotion the poem “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. The opening lines read:
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
She was also known for her whimsical poems composed for all occasions. The rhyme schemes were often forced.
So when I proposed, I did it in verse. She laughed the entire time.
I only remember the first as last lines.
Oh Char. Things have gone too far . . . .
Let it be said
That to Ed you will be wed!
She said “yes.”
I will end with some lines from her last Valentine poem for me.
(Note: “Twee” is the name of affection we use for each other. It is short for “Sweetie Pie.”)
“I love you my Twee
And always will.
My love for you is over the hill.
And I know that you love me !!”
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