I will be waiting
This post is in memory of a dear friend. This weekend roadnotes aka Velma aka my Voice of Reason lost her battle with cancer. Like many of her friends who are struggling with this fact, I want to post my memories of her. After Liam's passing in 2001, my friends list swelled with friends of his and friends of those friends and somehow I think that is how we first interacted. She invited me down to Rose's Turn and Harry and I went and fell in love with the place. We went there often and became friends with Velma. Then I fucked up, breached internet etiquette, and she unfriended me. But she meant something to me and I knew I had made a mistake and I carefully interacted with her in other journals and gradually earned back her trust. The rest, as we say, was history. We hung out often at Rose's and sometimes on our own. Howard and I became good friends with her and Soren. When Soren had his stroke, Howard and I did what we could to help. I have lots of memories of the four of us going out to eat after he recovered. Memories of us taking Velma out when Soren was still in the hospital. When they left for Seattle, it was hard to let them go. I thought we'd go visit them someday. I thought they would visit NYC one day. I always thought there would be more time.
Time. One song that was one of her regular songs to sing was "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper. After Liam died, that song became one of those songs that always reminded me of him. Well, one night Velma got up there and sang it and boy did she sing it and afterward I thanked her and told her how much the song meant to me. As our friendship grew, she would get up and sing it to me. At the first Rose's Turn reunion, she got up to sing that song and then extended her hand and wouldn't take no for an answer. So up I went and we sang it together. That song will always be ours.
My world is a lot darker today. Velma was a dear friend and she and I talked each other through some hard, hard shit. I will treasure all those endless e-mails as we worked through stuff together. When she and Soren moved to Seattle we didn't talk as much as we could but we e-mailed occassionally and tried to keep up with each other. She taught me about friendship and second chances and about being real. I will miss her so, so much.
Tonight, my thoughts keep turning to Soren and how very hard this must be for him. I feel so fucking helpless. Fuck cancer.
The clip below is from a documentary about the closing of Rose's Turn. Velma and Soren are there, of course. Those days at that piano bar are some of my best memories. Goodbye my Voice of Reason, I know you'll be waiting when I fall. I love you.
Time. One song that was one of her regular songs to sing was "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper. After Liam died, that song became one of those songs that always reminded me of him. Well, one night Velma got up there and sang it and boy did she sing it and afterward I thanked her and told her how much the song meant to me. As our friendship grew, she would get up and sing it to me. At the first Rose's Turn reunion, she got up to sing that song and then extended her hand and wouldn't take no for an answer. So up I went and we sang it together. That song will always be ours.
My world is a lot darker today. Velma was a dear friend and she and I talked each other through some hard, hard shit. I will treasure all those endless e-mails as we worked through stuff together. When she and Soren moved to Seattle we didn't talk as much as we could but we e-mailed occassionally and tried to keep up with each other. She taught me about friendship and second chances and about being real. I will miss her so, so much.
Tonight, my thoughts keep turning to Soren and how very hard this must be for him. I feel so fucking helpless. Fuck cancer.
The clip below is from a documentary about the closing of Rose's Turn. Velma and Soren are there, of course. Those days at that piano bar are some of my best memories. Goodbye my Voice of Reason, I know you'll be waiting when I fall. I love you.
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