Thankful

More and more, friends are reaching out and expressing their gratitude to each other around Thanksgiving. I love this shift to the tradition. I am personally more and more aware of my gratitude towards friends and family recently, and I appreciate the opportunity to give and receive this emotion in words, whether a text or call or in person.

I was lucky enough to be whisked away to another world for this Thanksgiving, visiting Paul’s brother’s family in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Helen and Phil and our friends Chris and Jenni Browning joined for the adventure. We lounged, ate, and made sure the pool was sufficiently splashed-in. Our Thanksgiving feast did not disappoint! I would like to say I ate excessive amounts of stuffing and pie for Paul’s sake, but I did it because I’m a greedy pig.

The week before, Seattle radio station KEXP asked listeners to submit a story about an artist they are thankful for this year. I often hear these requests for their Saturday “Sound and Vision” show, but never get around to sending my ideas in. This year I had a good response, so I emailed and was lucky to be chosen to read my story. The archive of the show is no longer available, so I can tell you I really nailed it! In truth it didn’t make me cringe, so that’s huge. Here’s what I said:

“The artist I’m thankful for is Robyn Hitchcock. My husband, Paul, was super passionate about music, and his collection was staggering.

One of his favorites though, was Robyn. He told me this on our second or third date. I made reference to the Soft Boys, and he fell in love with me on the spot. [sidenote for listeners: That the Soft Boys was one of Robyn Hitchcock’s bands is the only thing I knew about them. But it worked.]

At some point Paul started an email correspondence with Robyn. This started after Paul was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer, which is when the things he valued in life came into greater focus, and music was the backbone of his survival strategy. At one point, I took a photo of Paul recreating Robyn’s 2017 album cover where he is holding a white cat, with our own cat Karl. He sent this to him.

I finally got to experience Robyn live at the Fremont Abbey a couple years ago, and he posed for a photo with Paul and our friend Ian Jones. He’s even wearing the shirt he wears on the album cover with the cat. Another time, we brought a bunch of friends to see him play at the Fillmore in SF.  Paul died in August 2018, and I am thankful to Robyn Hitchcock for being warm and kind when he didn’t have to be, and allowing Paul to feel the kind of connection that he lived for.”