On May 24, 2011, a grey, drizzly Tuesday, a funeral service featured an unexpected speaker who discussed the later career of William Wyler and films such as Ben-Hur and The Sound of Music, prompting confusion among attendees. The narrator briefly misidentified the pastor and struggled to reconcile the incongruous movie lecture with the gravity of the moment. Raymond W. Sobczynski, age 76, had died after several years of poor health and a three-week hospital stay, with close family at his bedside. The immediate aftermath blended sorrow with a surreal, hectic scramble to handle practical arrangements and process the loss.
Finally, a man steps up into the front of the room, briefly introduces himself to us and then begins earnestly discussing the career of William Wyler with a focus on the latter portion-the success of "Ben-Hur (1959) and how he turned down the chance to make "The Sound of Music (1965), though not a mention, as I recall, of "The Children's Hour " (1962).
Dad, Raymond W. Sobczynski, had passed away a few days earlier the age of 76-he had been in poor health for the previous few years and had spent about three weeks in the hospital before finally passing on. As such things go, I suppose that he went as well as one could under the circumstances-my mother, my brother, his wife, and I were all there at his bedside.
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