去年父亲节我还在电话里和雅可夫争论父亲节的过法，而今天他已经离世近一年了。。。。
雅可夫是我博士导师朱思福的死党。两人在野路大学相遇后，工作找在一起， 实验室相邻。虽然一个做病毒， 一个做免疫，可实验室周会一起开，文章一起发。 于我们这些学生， 同时听两个领域的发言， 即开阔了眼界，每人似乎又多了一个导师，多了一个指路人。
和大多数PI （principle investigator）不同，雅可夫喜欢自己做实验，尤其做动物实验。他常挂在嘴边的是“我不信任你们这些孩子(I don’t trust you kids).” 早晨开工后， 常见他穿着白大衣， 拿着实验工具，先跑到朱思福办公室聊会天， 再和我们这些学生开几句玩笑， 然后心满意足哼着小曲，带着学生去做动物试验。他热爱爵士乐， 他的实验室常飘着他的最新爵士乐收藏。朱思福的学生最爱干的事是实验空隙跑到他的实验室听音乐， 侃大山， 不光喜欢听他眉飞色舞讲免疫学史， 免疫界名人轶事， 也聊美食， 聊他的两个孩子，聊我们这些学生里谁又交了男朋友。。。。他的实验室俨然是我们“kids”的乐土。
受雅可夫的影响，病毒学专业毕业的我却要找免疫学的博士后。无知者无畏，不知天高地厚的我找博士后不光跳专业，而且瞎猫碰死耗子， 找到野路大学一个人才济济的实验室。还记得刚开始做博士后时一无所知，全身都是压力的日子，想起来仿佛那时的天空都是暗的。那段日子最大的亮点是雅可夫的来访。 雅可夫到野路免疫系元老实验室要细胞株， 顺便来看我。还记得在野路看到雅可夫我发自心底的那份高兴， 即像是久别又见家人， 又像走在沙漠中的人突然看到水源，兴奋不已。带他去吃我的最爱，一个台湾餐车卖的盖浇饭，和他吃饭聊天，哈哈大笑。他带给我那段日子里难得的高兴。雅可夫走后又打电话来鼓励我坚持不放弃，艰难的日子总会过去。。。。。。。。。。
去年初夏，雅可夫夫人娜米打电话说雅可夫被诊断脑膜瘤， 请我们帮忙再看看MRI片子。先生看后说做手术预后很好，问题不大。 术前和娜米通话谈雅可夫的状况。娜米问我要不要和雅可夫说话，我担心我言语不当，给雅可夫徒增术前压力， 便说术后再问候他。谁想这个通话机会我永远失去了。。。。。。。。
想念雅可夫，想念他的微笑，想念他听着音乐在无菌仓做实验的样子， 想念他学北京腔叫我名字的声音。。。我想他现在住在每一个当年那些“kids”的心中。是他让我懂得“passion”的含义。
想念你， Yacov！！！ Last year father’s day, I was still on the phone arguing with Yacov what is the best way to celebrate father’s day, today he had passed away for almost a year …….. Yacov is a close friend of my PhD advisor Joe. They met at Yale, found job at the same university, and set up lab next to each other. Although one works on virology, the other worked on immunology, they run lab meeting together, publish paper together. To us students, we got to hear views from two different fields, not only widened our views, but also everybody seems getting two advisors looking over and helping setting future directions. Unlike most PI (principle investigator), Yacov loves to do experiment himself, especially animal experiments. He always liked to say “ I don’t trust you kids.” Every morning, having his lab coat on, before going to do mouse experiments, he would stop by at Joe’s office chat a little, joking around with students in the lab a bit, then with the satisfied smile on his face, goes to the mouse room for animal experiments. He loves Jazz, and the music of his newest Jazz collection always comes out from his lab. Joe’s student loves to stopby at his lab during the interval of experiments. Not only for good music, but also hangout with Yacov, hearing his stories about famous people in the immunology fields, chatting about good food, new potential boyfriend candidates for the girls in the lab, and his two kids….. His lab is our favorite hangout. Under Yacov’s influence, although I was majored in virology for Ph.D, I looked in the immunology field for postdoc. There is this old saying in Chinese “ people don’t have knowledge don’t have fear.” It is very true in my case. Armed with little knowledge in immunology, I found myself settling in a top tier immunology lab for postdoc. Those were hard days and every muscle in my body seems under pressure. The happiest memory of those days was Yacov’s visit. He came to pickup some cell line from one of the lab and stopped by to see me. I was so happy, it felt like seeing the family after a long time or someone walking in the desert suddenly sees water. I took him to try my favorite food stand on Cedar street, chatting and laughting. He brought me true happiness I haven’t felt for a long time in a pressured environment. After the visit, Yacov called me encouraging me to persist…. Last summer, Nomi called and said Yacov was diagnosed with meningioma asking Xin to read the MRI. After reading the film, Xin said the prognosis is pretty good with surgery. Before the surgery, I talked with Nomi learning Yacov’s condition. Nomi asked me whether I wanted to talk to Yacov, I was worried that I might inadvertently gave him pressure before the surgery, so I told Nomi I will talk to him after the surgery. Unexpectedly, the opportunity to talk to him is forever gone………… Missing Yacov, I miss his smile, miss watching him doing experiments under the hood with the music on, miss hearing him mimicking the Peking accent calling my name…………. I believe now he lives in the heart of all those “kids” he worked, joked with. He helped me understand the meaning of “passion”. Missing you, Yacov!!!
