Fare Thee Well 2020
So this is the last one for 2020. Hard to believe I’ve done 40 of these since we got bushwhacked by COVID-19.
Coupla things. This past Sunday, The New York Times ran their annual “The Lives They Lived” section in the magazine. Here they salute folks we lost in 2020. Real interesting mix of people, from Helen Reddy to Tom Seaver to Breonna Taylor. They also did a section on regular next-door Americans we lost to COVID-19.
On the front page, there was a farewell to places we lost: “They were local landmarks, watering holes, shops and haunts that weathered recession and gentrification, world wars and the Great Depression only to succumb this year to the economic ravages of the coronavirus. This is their obituary.” Great piece with photos and stories. All local independents. Losing them will forever change the character, culture and personality of their cities, towns and neighborhoods. So let’s get out and support the local favorites we have left.
Speaking of obituaries, I’m the oldest of 11. I’ve been tasked with two obits. One for my dad and one for my sister Wesa who we lost in December of 2016 at 63. After that one, my sisters told me I’d never be allowed to write one again. I think it was the line I threw in about Wesa’s business Motormouth’s, a copy shop that was on the first floor below my office in the 90s: “The shop was named by her brother Darby because of Wesa’s ability to talk and talk. Her son Lenny and nephew Joe, along with Bobby Clements, helped her run the store and are generally credited with tanking the business.”
My sisters also banned me from giving any more eulogies after I quoted Frank Sinatra in the one I gave for my father. They thought I was saying the old man was a boozer and a skirt-chaser.
I may be forbidden from doing obits and eulogies, but we always run an ad when the good ones go. And as far as Weezie goes, I ask her every morning when I get up and every night when I go down for a little help from above. You know, the Big Kahuna up there.
Hey life goes on and next year will be better. Happy new year and keep your dukes up.