so between june 22 , when his nine-year-old son jeff had succumbed to what was then diagnosed as `` flu-related pneumonia , '' and june 29 , when his sixteen-year-old daughter patricia ( and oh god she had been so young and so achingly beautiful ) had succumbed to what everyone - those that were left - was then calling tube-neck , he had seen the twelve people he loved best in the world pass away while he himself remained healthy and feeling fine .