Death of Jimmy Vandermeer

Jimmy Vandermeer, a retired candy and greeting-card salesman and a longtime friend of Ralph Roberts, died in Room 315 of Derry Home Hospital on the night of Tuesday, October 5, 1993. His death was not a random tragedy but a purposeful severance carried out by the two small, bald beings Ralph had come to know as Clotho and Lachesis, the agents of purposeful death. The event served as a crucial lesson for Ralph and Lois Chasse, revealing the true nature of the beings they had encountered and the mechanics of the life-cords they had been seeing as auras.

Background and Illness

Jimmy Vandermeer had been a close friend of Ralph Roberts during their years on the road as traveling salesmen. They had shared long trips, late-night conversations, and the unremarkable secrets of men who lived out of suitcases. After Ralph retired to a desk job, they lost touch, only reconnecting in the Derry of the Old Crocks, the secret city of the elderly. Shortly after Carolyn Roberts's death, Jimmy told Ralph he had survived a bout with cancer, losing a lung but otherwise recovering. However, the cancer returned, and by early October 1993, he was in Derry Home Hospital, receiving radiation treatments and injections of poison meant to kill the disease. Faye Chapin, another of the Old Crocks, informed Ralph that Jimmy was sinking fast and that he could have visitors. Ralph learned that Jimmy was in Room 315, the same ICU floor where his wife Carolyn had died in Room 317 and where Bill McGovern's friend Bob Polhurst was also dying in Room 313.

The Event: A Purposeful Death

Ralph and Lois, having been elevated to a higher plane of perception by the little bald doctors, entered Room 315 and witnessed the death firsthand. Jimmy V had three visitors: Faye Chapin, who was reading a book of chess problems, and the two beings Clotho and Lachesis, who stood at the foot of the bed. The beings, whom Ralph had first seen leaving May Locher's house, were dressed in clean white tunics and carried long-bladed scissors. They acknowledged Ralph and Lois, introducing themselves by the names of the Fates, Clotho and Lachesis, and explained that they had been waiting for them. As the time of severing came, Clotho approached the left side of the bed and Lachesis the right, their faces lit with love and caring. Lachesis placed his hands on Jimmy's cheeks and kissed his forehead, saying, "Go in peace, friend." Clotho then opened his scissors, slid the blades around Jimmy's black balloon-string—the life-cord Ralph and Lois had learned to see—and closed them with a small, unimportant snick. The segment of the balloon-string above the scissors drifted upward and disappeared, and the deathbag in which Jimmy lay turned a momentary bright white before winking out of existence. Jimmy opened his eyes, smiled at Ralph and Lois, and then his gaze turned fixed and distant. He was gone.

Consequences and Significance

Jimmy's death was immediate and peaceful, a stark contrast to the violent, random deaths caused by the rogue being Atropos. Faye Chapin, who had been sitting beside the bed, felt Jimmy's shoulder and realized he had died, leaving the room in distress. The event confirmed for Ralph and Lois that Clotho and Lachesis were not malevolent but were, as they claimed, "the physicians of last resort," performing their work with love and respect. It also clarified the nature of the balloon-strings and deathbags they had been seeing: the balloon-string was a life-cord, and its severance by the scissors of Clotho and Lachesis was a purposeful, natural death. This understanding was crucial for the task ahead, as they would soon have to confront the rogue Atropos, who used a rusty scalpel to cut cords randomly and maliciously, as he had done to the dog Rosalie and would later do to Bill McGovern. Jimmy's death, witnessed in this heightened state, was a lesson in the order of the universe, a demonstration of the Purpose that Clotho and Lachesis served, and a preparation for the chaos they would have to oppose.