Tuesday, January 14, 2025
János (Jani for us) was my oldest friend in both senses of the term. We have known each other since infancy, and our age put us in a category that people call the oldest generation.
Though we met at the tender age of one or two, we did not grow up together. In Budapest we did not live in the same neighborhood, did not go to the same school, and were not pursuing the same sort of career. We did not have the same circles of friends, and for most of our lives, we even weren’t living in the same country. But we remained friends. Very close friends.
Was it because we knew each other’s family? Certainly, but most importantly, we knew that the same relationship we established as kids would endure forever. And it did.
For me Jani was a rock. His certainties and the strength that he put into everything he did was an anchor for me. I admired him for what he did and how he did it. His smile, which emanated an unbreakable assurance, reestablished a certain order in my world.
We could tell each other everything, all the more that we had the same basic background in childhood.
My wife Myriam and our daughter Clara join me in my grief and our hearts go out to Julie, Cory, Olivia and Evan. We all lost an exceptional human being, and I keep loving him.
Tibor
