Once Upon a Strawberry Moon

There was a summer, many moons ago, that was filled with equal parts tragedy and bliss. There were new faces in my life, many hello’s and sadly, there were goodbye’s. I had my first professional job as an actor. My marriage dissolved. I lived in a one room motel. I made friends forever. There was hacky sack. And late night swims. And hot afternoon naps. And volleyball. And picnics by the river. It was brilliant. We got to play dressu p for two hours a night and get paid for it…and the other 22 hours in the day were ours to waste away as desired.

This weekend, all of those memories were brought back to me with the news that one of those new faces…passed away suddenly. To me, he will always always be that 8 or 9 year old kid, running around like a wildcat. Poking things with sticks. Catching snakes. “come look at my dog! touch his tail. it’s thick!” He was brighter than the sun and had more smiles than a circus.

It was his dad, that wore the subway token for three years. . . that I found about three weeks ago and began wearing again.

I’m going to the funeral on Thursday. It’s my last day at work, but I’m going to finish my morning and head out. I’ll go back on Friday to clean out stuff and say goodbyes. This is more important. My heart is breaking wide open. To me…he will always be that kid, running around acting a fool.

I wish you peace, my sweet child.