There was a sitting room downstairs, the library, her bedroom and bathroom. We at Harper's Magazine are deeply saddened by the loss of our former contributing editor Barry Lopez (1945-2020), who died on Christmas Day.Over the course of four decades, Barry wrote more than a dozen works of criticism, reportage, and memoir for the magazine, all of them informed by the combination of wonder and moral urgency that made him one of America's most beloved . Sooki left for yoga just as the waitress was bringing our eggs. You okay? Sooki asked. We laughed at ourselves, at the practice, at the voice that told us we were flowers, we were leopards, but we didnt stop. I dont take notes. The fact that the two of you want me here, that you love me, that you believe in meit makes me believe in myself. It looks like a little purse on a long strap?, I asked her if she could have left it on the plane, but no, of course not. On Thursday morning I started to cry while walking Sparky. Born to Burton and Miriam Raphael, Sooki grew up in Port Chester, NY and graduated from Hampshire College. I've got mail today, from one of Hollywood's top stars - Tom Hanks. I had set my intention to help my friend, to hold her hand and go with her while she went to peer over the cliff, the cliff that, coincidentally, I fell off. They took ten vials of blood on one visit, twenty-eight vials the next. Two days later, I sent an endorsement to the editor. Were just reading. If youre concerned about pancreatic cancer in your family, start by talking to a genetic counselor to learn more about your risk and what options you have, Everett said. Ours was an ephemeral connection common to the modern world, writes Patchett. Having lost his mom to breast cancer in 2018, he knew he wanted to be extra careful during the pandemic. I wanted to go to bed and read. Im sorry to bother you, Sooki said, looking around. He agreed, and then kept finding reasons to go to work anyway. I had interviews scheduled all day on Tuesday, Sooki had chemo on Wednesday, and my friends were leaving for California on Thursday. Sooki Raphael is a TH Assistant at Playtone based in Universal City, California. She has children. I felt their love for me. I didnt want to get stuck in Auckland, but if flights were canceled and I was stranded in Tulsa, Karl could always come and get me. Our newsletter vital information, hope, and healing, delivered weekly. It had been more than two years since I met Sooki in a theater in Washington. We saw two movies with my sister. Hanks, by way of reciprocation, agrees to How it happened is told in the title story ofThese Precious Days, Patchetts second collection of essays. And we had the most amazing time. Ive got to take care of my nun, I told him. Sooki, in her eye mask, was lying so serenely beneath the furry blanket she had brought us from California that I wondered if she was dead. When Ann Patchett decides to try medicinal hallucinogens to accompany her ailing friend on a spiritual journey (also to alleviate the pain caused by chemotherapy), he gives them space. Would you feel better about it if I did it with you?, She looked at me. If asked if she could go any place, that place would always be home. I want to meet Tom Hanks, she said. Shed gone to an Indian restaurant and bought bread stuffed with apricots and dates. Of course I opted for tattoos. Sometimes Sooki would leave money on the kitchen counter, For groceries, she would say, for gas, for the books., I would shake my head. You can just concentrate on yourself., She shook her head. "The press release is about to go out." I sat there and watched her read, waiting for something more, something that explained it. I had never found a way of asking what having cancer had been like for her, or what it meant to so vigorously refuse the hand you were dealt. We talked and then we didnt. We were early, they were late. They were lucky to get up in the morning to fly across the country so Sooki could have a pancreaticoduodenectomy, also known as a Whipple procedure. She had wanted to be a better person, and here she believed she was better. But I think Ann is the saint in the story. Of course we could. Sooki wore a leash as a child, the energy in her tiny frame too much for her mother to control. I wanted to know what her worst fear about staying here was, and after a pause she told me she was a vegetarian. Email tilts toward the overly familiar. As Sparky stopped and sniffed, I offered up Sookis recurrence as a story to tell, not a problem to solve. I keep throwing things out. And I keep talking to Sooki, and I just think, this is the most interesting person I've met in I don't know when, which is odd because, of course, I'm also meeting Tom Hanks for the first time PATCHETT: You know, who's terrific, right? But any story that starts will also end. Sookie paints and paints and paints. She joined the ships crew. I find a stream and follow it, the stream dries up, and Im left to look for moss on the sides of trees. She brought her paintings upstairs to show us: a person who was too shy to say good night most nights was happy for us to see her work. The water in the creek a block away skimmed the bottom of the footbridge. She couldnt be alone. Hey, how are you? But for all the times people have wanted to tell me their story because they think it would make a wonderful novel, it pretty much never works out. For Patchett its Snoopy: Snoopy taught me that I would be hurt and I would get over it. KELLY: Well, it's really, really true, so it was a pleasure to get to say it to you instead of just pining to my book club about how I wish you had another book coming out. Our lives ran the way they always did, only with the addition of a quiet person who did her best to take up as little space and be as helpful as possible. I turned out the light and kept thinking about the leash, the marathons, the trail running, the yoga, the walking in the desert, the painting and painting and painting. How it happened is told in the title story of These Precious Days, [] And the moral of the story is that really is what I have been doing my whole life ever since. Maybe Niki was right about my life being different, but maybe thats because I tend to think of things in terms of story: I pick up a book and read it late into the night, and because I like the book, I wind up on a flight to D.C. Timeless stories from our 172-year archive handpicked to speak to the news of the day. Shed fallen down some stairs outside of church the night before and twisted her foot and now that foot was swollen and sore. Never want to see this again? Shed been a location scout, made wedding cakes, started a childrens clothing company, taught ceramics. Sometimes I had to get right in front of her to hear what she was saying. I had a concrete reason to be careful about the germs I was bringing into the house. I am hopeful and feeling radical. Okay, he said. You can live here for the rest of your life, I said, and I meant it. Her mother is the novelist Jeanne Ray. Ann had only briefly met Sooki Raphael, Tom Hanks' personal assistant for over two decades, at an author event, but after learning Sooki was in treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer and hoping to be included in a proposed Los Angeles clinical trial, the author devised a plan. Travel while staying at home! Use this bar to access information about the steps in your cancer journey. He would tell me how lucky we were, the three of us together. I was leaving for Virginia. Wed stood together in the dark of a Washington theater for a matter of minutes a year and a half earlier. No one will bother you there. The station happened to be next door to the airport, so everyone picked up their coolers and walked over. Many nights after dinner, I would ask Karl where Sooki was and then we would start looking around for her. And anyway, its my fault. . I knew I would write about Sooki eventually, I had told her so, but I had no idea what Id say. We love you, Sooki. People were out with their dogs. So happy to be the connector of good things. When I rely on my faulty memory, the pieces are free to move. Jennie and I walked our dogs together after dinner, and Sooki came with us most nights, unless she had a phone call to return, unless she wasnt feeling up to it. You all did a book event. Its so amazingly generous of Karl, she whispered uncertainly. The mistakes I had made were so clear once I had finished. The car was taking me into yellow, not a field of yellow but into the color itself. Im good. Now she would go home to her husband, her children, her grandchildren, her friends. He figures out problems that other people have tried and failed to solve for years. My only prescription is for vitamin D. If Id had a coat of arms, it would have read quality of life, life meaning, optimism. They reviewed her records together. lives. As I got ready to send the details of my second opinion, I was already looking to the third opinion and rethinking the story. Dont worry about it, Tavia said. She was a zombie in the original Dawn of the Dead. KELLY: Speaking of friendships that we make in college, early in life when we - it feels like we have all this time to just live in the present, tell me about another essay - "The First Thanksgiving." I flew to New York early the next morning, took a car to New Jersey, signed several hundred books, attended a cocktail-party fund-raiser for the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, gave a talk in a crowded town hall, got to my hotel room in Manhattan at midnight, got up in the morning to tape a segment for the Today show, then was back on a plane. I looked up every anomaly online, settling on too much black tea, or maybe the wrong color shoes. Later in the summer there was radiation, just to be safe. It had been happening for a while. These are the precious days of the title. I wonder whether it isnt easier here because you dont have to comfort us, you dont have to make us feel better about the fact that youre sick. Farleys mother fought two battles with cancer. She painted. One of the last things I understand when Im putting a novel together is the structure of time. More news about planes: friends of mine in Nashville who knew what was going on with Sooki, and who have a house in California and a jet that takes them there, the nicest possible friends, offered her a ride home. I hear you, and I know that if I were in your shoes and you were asking me to stay with you it would seem impossible. Oh, shes darling, Sister Nena said. I emailed him at work. There was no stopping it. She worked for Tom Hanks. All rights reserved. Other doctors are quick to do him favors because hes done so many for them. We wrote about artists we liked, about Pantone and the color wheel. It wasnt that I could kill someone; it was that I could kill her. Sooki had strength and courage. Most mornings, Sooki set out in the darkness to walk the two miles to a power-yoga class that started at six-thirty, despite the presence of my car keys on the kitchen counter and explicit instructions to drive. It was over. In Tan-Tan there was no electricity at night, either. Whats fascinating fails to translate. I reminded him that in choosing to work, he ran the risk of killing our houseguest. He talked to his patients on the phone. You explain it in the opening chapter. This whole time Ive gotten it wrong. Sookis a pilot! Karl said. Shed called me from outside the airport. I did a Pilates DVD we never got around to. I need to go home, she said, looking at the pictures of herself she had asked me to take with her cell phone. I could see her doing it. I hadnt meant this to be my career. I didnt know how the story would end. My whole life Ive wanted this time. Jessica Everett, a genetic counselorat Perlmutter Cancer CentersPancreatic Cancer Centerat NYU Langone, encourages people in this category to look into possible screening options. I was already years ahead of myself, thinking of all the good Tom Hanks could do for independent bookstores. But I think once youre here and see the setup youll understand. We werent the only ones who felt restless. Would he think to tell me if something had happened? Given Patchetts astonishing gifts as a storyteller, others embraced it but with reservations. Spanish for straight, direct. Sooki had been a marathoner, though her best event was a 10K trail run. I try to keep all the parts of my life separate.. I had spent my professional life looking at my calendar, counting down the days I had left at home. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Five-time GRAMMY Awardwinners and living legends, the Blind Boys of Alabama both defined and innovated traditional jubilee gospel, turning their live shows into roof-raising musical Multi award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist Laila Biali masterfully mixes jazz and pop, bringing virtuosity and unpredictability to songs that are concise and catchy (Washington Smothers Theatre, Pepperdine University 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA. I had breakfast with my editor and agent and publicist, and when we were finished they each decided not to go back to the office after all. She had a son and a daughter-in-law with two children who lived south of her and a daughter and son-in-law who had recently moved north.
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