It's All In Your Head
GS Jade Barrett
 
From the 25th of June to July 9th of 2004, a partner and close friend of mine won six straight pair games, and came in second in the one that broke his streak (and only because I had failed to play well).
 
 To look at him he seemed unlikely to be a bridge power. At the age of seventy-six, he was past his physical prime, a fact made readily apparent by the constant tremors that were a part of his daily life. The symptoms of Parkinson's disease made it very difficult for him to use bidding boxes and occasionally awkward to handle cards, which often resulted in his opponents taking this player's game too lightly - to the extreme detriment of their score. For while he was not as physically fit as he once was, Jim Dunlap had lost little mental acuity.
 
A Lifemaster from the mid 1950's, he was a member of the Northwest team that brought a National Championship home to Portland in the 1960's and 35 years later his game was still with him. Jim loved to play, and he demonstrated his flair at the clubs in Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR, as well as in Yuma, AZ where he wintered with his wife of fifty-one years, Flicka. He believed that bridge contributed to his overall health, as well as having the benefits of the competition and companionship of his peers.
 
Over the years I have had the pleasure of playing with several players who experienced some fairly severe physical travails. Doctor Jay Slotkin was the most physically challenged, as he suffered from ALS (aka Lou Gerhig's disease) to the point where he could only move his eyelids and occasionally a very small smile. We placed highly in one regional event where his nurse held his cards and he communicated by blinking. While he was totally paralyzed, Jay was still the same brilliant researcher and surgeon he had been before he was stricken and bridge allowed that superb mind an outlet to socialize and compete in an environment where he was a peer. Dr Larry Heavey came to the game late in life after his battle with Cystic Fibrosis prevented him from playing golf in a competitive environment (I believe that temperament had something to do with that as well. I have been told he had an amazing ability to break clubs). He was a fierce competitor and despite his failing health won eleven regional events AFTER a double lung transplant.
 
The duplicate bridge community seems so different from the mundane world sometimes, since people with severe physical limitations can continue to successfully compete against healthier participants. There have been a number of physically challenged players who have competed successfully (most notably Waldemar Von Zedgewitz, who won a medal at the world championships when he was nearly blind and virtually deaf). Players of great age continue to win daily. There have been nonagenarians and a few centenarians who have won regional events, and while these players occasionally require some assistance with their cards or have a stationary table, they are very much equals in our game. They are perfectly capable of providing all of us bridge lessons. With a contest that is played completely in the mind, the table is a level playing surface and they are tigers to contend with.
 
Jim Dunlap, Larry Heavey and Jay Slotkin are all playing bridge up in the sky now, having passed on a few years ago. They left me with many life lessons and they are sorely missed by this partner.