Everyone gets to have their own unique grief
Vol. 2, Issue 8
"Grief is always sudden as winter, no matter how long the autumn." --J. Aleksandr Wootton
NEWS & NOTES
Inundated with compassion
Joseph Awuah-Darko is ready to die.
The 28-year-old British-Ghanaian artist has been dealing with treatment-resistant bipolar disorder for many years and now, he's done doing so.
Just before Christmas, Awuah-Darko announced on Instagram that he had moved to the Netherlands to end his life. Among the many comments he received, both positive and negative, were more than 100 invitations to share a meal.
Awuah-Darko was so touched by this outreach that he launched a worldwide tour called "The Last Supper Project." While he awaits approval of his request for medically assisted suicide, he plans to have dinner with many of these kind strangers:
In the past 10 weeks, Awuah-Darko has traveled to Berlin, Brussels, Milan and Paris and shared 46 dinners with people. He's also received more than 3,000 additional dinner invitations.
FMI: Click here.
The sixth stage of grief
Art and an awareness of death
L.A. artist Kate Mueller made her first coffin in a furniture design class at Azusa Pacific University. Using reclaimed wood from the theater department's dumpster, the 20-year-old created something beautiful. Thirteen years later, she's still using it as a coffee table/storage trunk and freaking out cable guys who don't expect to find a coffin in someone's living room.
Mueller has also honed her woodworking skills and added welding to her repertoire. Her latest project involves installing large steel sculptures on southern California beaches and inviting people to interact with them. But her coffin fascination has continued. She's even held "coffin parties" where guests can lie inside and contemplate their mortality:
FMI: Click here.
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WEEKLY POLL
LAST WEEK’S POLL
NOTABLE OBITS
* Dr. Leland Fairbanks, a physician who fought for smoking bans in Arizona, died at 94. Although he described himself as "an old country doctor," Fairbanks did more than tend the sick. When he pushed for a smoking ban at Keams Canyon Hospital on the Hopi reservation, it became the first smoke-free hospital in America. He also campaigned for the Smoke-Free Arizona Act, which prohibited smoking in most enclosed public places and workplaces. The act was so successful that smoking rates experienced a steep decline statewide. (Stephanie Innes, Arizona Republic)
* Pop singer Roberta Flack has died at 88. The classically trained pianist was teaching music in the D.C. school system in the 1960s when she decided to focus on her own music career. After her version of the song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," was featured in the 1971 Clint Eastwood film "Play Misty for Me," it spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and earned her Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Flack followed it up with the single "Killing Me Softly With His Song," and it too became a hit, earning her Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance. Flack was the first person to win back-to-back Record of the Year honors. (Matt Schudel, The Washington Post)
* Patsy Grimaldi, whose delicious pies cooked in coal-brick ovens delighted pizza fans for over 30 years, died at 93. Although his restaurant bore several names (Patsy's, Grimaldi's, Juliana's Pizza), Grimaldi created his tasty treats from a Brooklyn storefront "under the Brooklyn Bridge." And because he sold pies late at night, Grimaldi often encountered hungry celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, with whom he formed a strong bond. For years after Sinatra's death, an alcove at the pizzeria contained a small shrine to the singer. (Pete Wells, The New York Times and Rich Calder, The New York Post)
* Veteran character Peter Jason, 80, who was known for his roles in “Deadwood,” “48 Hrs.” and “Prince of Darkness,” has died. Born in Hollywood, Jason found a passion for acting in high school after appearing in his senior-year play. He studied drama at Carnegie Mellon University and tread the boards in every play that would cast him. Over the next seven decades, Jason would amass more than 260 film and TV credits and appear in some 300 commercials. (Matt Minton, Variety and Greg Evans, Deadline)
* Nancy "Lefty" Leftenant-Colon, who broke racial barriers as a military nurse, died at 104. Leftenant-Colon joined the Army Nurse Corps as a reservist in 1945. Although she and other black nurses were accepted under strict quotas, they served with segregated troops at segregated bases. But as the number of casualties rose during World War II, she was allowed to also care for white patients. Leftenant-Colon was later accepted into the regular Army Nurse Corps, an appointment that made national news, then switched military branches and joined the newly independent Air Force so that she could become a flight nurse. She retired two decades later as a major. (Harrison Smith, The Washington Post)
* Historian William E. Leuchtenburg, whose books charted the evolution of the American presidency, has died. He was 102. For decades, Leuchtenburg studied the life and career of Franklin D. Roosevelt and wrote or edited eight books about the president. Leuchtenburg won the Bancroft and Francis Parkman prizes, two of the top honors in American history, and became a consultant to documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. He also dedicated his life to teaching history, with stints at Smith College, Columbia University and Harvard University; he would eventually spend 30 years on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Harrison Smith, The Washington Post)
* Robert Seaman, 92, an Army veteran and artist who launched a popular art project during the COVID-19 pandemic, died. A native New Yorker, Seaman studied art history at Williams College and later worked in the paper industry, advertising and in real estate. At 60, he decided to turn his hobby into a profession, working for a greeting card company and creating illustrations for books and magazines. When the pandemic hit in 2020, Seaman started creating daily "Covid Doodles" that his daughter shared on Facebook. The drawings, which he made to pass the time and to lift people's spirits, became so popular that Seaman began offering originals and prints for sale on Etsy. He donated half of the proceeds to various charities. (Holly Ramer, The Associated Press)
* Actress Lynne Marie Stewart, 78, has died. The L.A. native took part in The Groundlings theater troupe, doing improv and sketch comedy alongside Elvira star Cassandra Peterson and comedians Phil Hartman and Paul Reubens. Reubens would later cast Stewart as Miss Yvonne and other roles in his Pee-wee Herman franchise. She would go on to appear in numerous movies ("American Graffiti," "Rain Man," "Clear and President Danger") and television shows ("M*A*S*H", "Laverne & Shirley," "Arrested Development," "Grey's Anatomy"). For the past 17 years, Stewart has had a recurring role as Bonnie Kelly on the FXX show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." (Glenn Garner, Deadline)
* Photographer George Tice has died at 86. Tice, who became a shutterbug as a child, was serving as a Navy photographer’s mate third class in 1959 when an explosion occurred on the aircraft carrier Wasp. He took pictures of the sailors trying to extinguish the flames, one of which was syndicated by The Associated Press and printed on the front page of The New York Times. After his time in the service ended, Tice spent the next half-century taking mostly black-and-white images of New Jersey. His work was featured in magazines, art exhibits, numerous books and in the 2013 documentary “George Tice: Seeing Beyond the Moment." (Richard Sandomir, The New York Times)
* Andrew D. Lester, 86, a white octogenarian who shot and injured a Black teenager in Missouri after the high school student mistakenly rang his doorbell, has died. In 2023, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was trying to pick up his younger siblings from their friends' house when he rang the bell on Lester's door in error. Lester responded by saying, "Don’t ever come here again" and opened fire. Although Yarl survived his injuries, the shooting sparked protests and a national outcry. Lester, a retired aircraft mechanic, eventually pleaded guilty to the attack but had not yet been sentenced. (Mitch Smith and Julie Bosman, The New York Times)
FAMOUS DEATHS IN HISTORY
On February 24, singer/actress/talk show host Dinah Shore (77), actor/comedian/filmmaker Harold Ramis (69) and NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson (101)
On February 25, English astronomer/architect Christopher Wren (90), gangster Bugs Moran (65) and playwright Tennessee Williams (71)
On February 26, the first African-American basketball player in the NBA Earl Lloyd (86), TV’s "People's Court" judge Joseph Wapner (97) and author/former CIA spy Charles McCarry (88)
On February 27, French fashion designer Louis Vuitton (70), children's TV host/producer/Presbyterian minister Mister Rogers (74) and actor/director/photographer Leonard Nimoy (83)
On February 28, actress Mary Stuart (75), radio broadcaster Paul Harvey (90) and entrepreneur/founder of Trader Joe's grocery store Joe Coulombe (89)
On March 1, shoemaker/civil rights pioneer Homer Plessy (61), instant photography inventor/co-founder of Polaroid Corp. Edwin Land (81) and actress Bonnie Franklin (69)
On March 2, English singer Dusty Springfield (59), Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott (75) and actor/writer/"Inside the Actors Studio" host James Lipton (93)
On March 3, German composer Johann Pachelbel (53), Belgian comic strip artist Hergé (75) and actor Danny Kaye (76)
RECOMMENDED SUBSTACK
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
"Do not grieve, my friend, my dearest friend. I am ready to go. And John, it will not be long." --first lady Abigail Adams to her husband, President John Adams
MOMENT OF GRATITUDE
Thanks to Angela Orenda, Unsplash, Joseph Awuah-Darko, Instagram, The Times, Apple News, David Kessler, TED, YouTube, Jill Schock, Kate Mueller, the Los Angeles Times, the Arizona Republic, Johnny Carson, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Variety, Deadline, WMUR-TV, The Associated Press, 368Art and Seaman Daily Doodles, Facebook, Etsy, Bruce Wodder, Panyawat Auitpol, On This Day, Playback.FM, Britannica: This Day in History, Time and Date, Wikipedia, The Written Word, A Death Doula's Substack, Canva and Deposit Photos for art and story suggestions.
The title quote is by David Kessler.
KEEP IN TOUCH
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