Last Years
Ilya showed great strength in battling Parkinson's disease for the last 30 years of his life. His condition worsened in the last 10 years to the point where he was barely able to move and speak, but thanks to extraordinary love and care of his wife Edith, Ilya was still able to travel to many mathematical conferences and keep mathematical contacts. With the help of James Cogdell he was able to continue at the highest level of research until almost his last days.
Ilya was an amateur chess player and loved playing chess with his children. In the last 10 years, when it became difficult for him to move and even speak, he still played chess and checkers as a way of communicating with them, and sometimes was even winning.
Read more about this topic: Ilya Piatetski-Shapiro
Famous quotes containing the word years:
“[He said] “Mary, don’t be a fool, nobody’s asked you to speak publicly in seventy years and they’re not going to start now.””
—Mary Boyda (b. 1923)
“In the years of President Ford
Decorum and calm were restored.
He did nothing hateful
For which we were grateful
But terribly, terribly bored.”
—Anonymous.