I might have made the choice to let it go unmentioned had there been something else to talk about, maybe his mother or my mother or the spigot that had frozen in the garage. She loved her friends, and supported them with all she had to give. It was Memorial Day, after all. A similar medical trial would begin months earlier in Nashville. I had gotten up in the dark to make stacks of sandwiches. We werent the only ones who felt restless. She asked whether that was cheating and was told not to worry about it. She worked for Tom Hanks. There are people here all the time. I was going to tell Karl what was happening but he was looking at his own phone. 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. Twenty-two sessions down and six to go. A man answered. You can live here for the rest of your life, I said, and I meant it. I said I thought it would be easier to be bald. I was no longer sick or well. Direct flights to Los Angeles had been suspended, and even if shed wanted to fly to Dallas to wait and see whether the connecting flight would be canceled (because thats what happened now), her weekly blood draws underscored the fact that she scarcely had enough white cells to qualify for chemo, much less protect her from a pandemic while on a commercial flight. My mother was a pilot, Sooki said, and there she was, suddenly at ease. Raphael passed peacefully on April 25. Most recently, she had a solo exhibition of paintings at ROSEGALLERY called These Precious Days, just like Patchetts title essay. But I didnt forget. assistant Sooki Raphael. Theyd fallen on the mailboxes. RoseGallery is pleased to present These Precious Days, a solo exhibition of paintings by Sooki Raphael, on view from 10 April until 10 May, 2021. In time, all I would have to say was, Its Friday. Spanish for straight, direct. I was happy, even thrilled, to stop traveling. Everyone could bring his or her own sandwich and stay safely apart. I came and watched from the open door. She and Tom would walk in the desert in the early mornings and she would feed him lines from a script while he memorized his part, cobras skating through the dust just in front of them. It made her crazy not to be there to help. I went to the grocery store and piled up the cart. Its undeniable that money and privilege are a great help. There she was in the passenger seat, a shy person with a quiet voice. I sent you another book that will show up eventually, a tiny French novel I love called The Lost Estate (Le grand meaulnes) by Alain-Fournier. We wrote about artists we liked, about Pantone and the color wheel. I Dont Want to Move On; I Do Want To Move Forward Doug Wendt On Being A Caregiver and Tragically Losing His Wife to Ovarian Cancer, Were never gonna move on, I dont even think I want to move on, but I do want to move forward, Doug said. The very fact of her existence in our house kept me on track. The paintings were bold, confident, at ease. Sooki wore a leash as a child, the energy in her tiny frame too much for her mother to control. They would stop each way to refuel in West Virginia. Hanks, by way of reciprocation, agrees to do the audio recording of Patchetts eighth novel, The Dutch House, and a sporadic email exchange between Patchett and Sooki develops into a friendship. Well, Sooki said when we were finished. I floated upstairs in a world that would not stop changing. Wed been introduced when I arrived but I didnt remember her name. I surely would go ahead with the dates I had scheduled in the States. The spring was cold and wet and endlessly beautiful because of it. I promise to be a more reliable friend and pen pal. It may resonate. What Sooki gave me was a sense of order, a sense of God, the God of Sister Nena, the God of my childhood, a belief that I had gone into my study one night and picked up the right book from the hundred books that were there because I was meant to. I would save what I could save, and, along with my business partner, Karen Hayes, and a small, ferocious staff (including my sister Heather) who never backed down, I was determined to save the bookstore. Subscribe to the World edition here. Karl was standing in the doorway. I dont even know how to respond to such generosity. We miss you. Sooki had had a toucan in college. When they called, she asked them all the right questions. We were about to go on. Thats been everything to me, and my life. And then one night, for reasons I cannot imagine, we decided to do it all again before we went to sleep. On the first Sunday in May, in the late afternoon, a storm kicked up, not expected but not a surprise either. That night I tried to explain it to Karl. A friend who was well versed in the experience brought them over early in the morning on Memorial Day. This is a great read. Sooki had downloaded it. I would bring her stacks of art books from the closed bookstore and she all but ate them. I worked at the Bronx Zoo during school and then I did the whole bat thing. Most days I went to work at Parnassus for several hours, filling boxes. He watched as she went through multiple rounds of chemotherapy while still working and taking care of her family. She met a group of sailors who had sailed around the world. The cell-phone case also served as her wallet, containing her credit cards, cash, IDs, insurance cardseverything important. ", (SOUNDBITE OF STATIK SELEKTAH SONG, "TIME"). Its okay for us to be in the same room, Sooki said, a statement rather than a question. All three of us had lost our fathers, all three of us were close with our mothers. She and Ken put what mattered most in the car and started driving, waiting to see which way the wind would shift the wall of flame. Everyone was wide awake, waiting up to see if the world was going to end. Its too weird., There is no weirdness left between us, I said. He holds a kind of medical currency, saved then spent, and when needed, he can marshal all necessary parties into immediate action, bringing them together so fast that whatever needs to happen can happen yesterday. Did you have a hard time?. I wouldnt. She was going to be stuck in a chair all day, which was why it was necessary to do it again at night when she got home. She lit up with all that breath. I had liked her coat very much, those pink peonies as big as my hand. We hope you enjoy reading another article this month! She wrote her thesis on bats and rabies. Farley trained for the NFL draft instead of playing for Virginia Tech, and his efforts paid off. By the time we sat down it was over. Its HARD. The caps had to be switched out every twenty-five minutes during treatment to ensure that her head stayed more or less frozen. Of course I opted for tattoos. I studied what did not come naturally, she told me. I never cry, and yet I had plans to do nothing else for the rest of the day and maybe the rest of the week. Curiosity is the rock upon which fiction is built.". View Sooki Raphael's business profile as TH Assistant at Playtone. I think about you often and hope for the best. The experience of waiting backstage before an event is always the same. For a while she filled in for a friend and was the assistant to a film director, and then another friend introduced her to Tom, who was looking for someone. 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 the morning of September 11, 2001, I was sitting in a caf in the West Village with my friends Lucy and Adrian when a woman ran in and said a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. Of course I want to go. As lockdown continues, the two women practice kundalini yoga and meditation twice a day. I will pick you up very late on Tuesday and take you to see Johanna on Wednesday. If I can borrow your car, Ill drive back to the airport., I shook my head. I told him about Sooki that night, but it was equally possible that I wouldnt have. And who wouldnt be so blown away given the fact that Raphael didnt really emerge as an artist until her pancreatic cancer diagnosis in November 2018. She kept saying she wanted to be the one to help me for a change. He was not one to miss a workout and neither was I. Id practiced kundalini devotedly for years and then drifted, picking up other things, and while Id stuck with the short class, I had amassed no end of DVDs. Entranced by her velvet coat and kind demeanor, Patchett knew she wanted to be friends with Raphael. There was a sitting room downstairs, the library, her bedroom and bathroom. Its funny, but all this time I was sure it was exactly that. She made wedding cakes that tasted as good as they looked. The CA 19-9 had gone from 2,100 to 470. When we turned out the light that night I felt myself buzzing with happiness: After nearly three months of lockdown, we were going to have an adventure. There was my grandmother, my father. But I cant just live with you and Karl for the rest of my life.. Asked to endorse Hankss short story collection,Uncommon Type, and then to interview him on stage during his tour, Patchett first meets Sooki in the wings of a Washington theater. (I say this as someone who is spending my days trying to write about our friendship and what happened here. I've got mail today, from one of Hollywood's top stars - Tom Hanks. I didnt know what I was supposed to do, she told me later. As it turned out, Sooki and I needed the same thing: to find someone who could see us as our best and most complete selves. She thought it would be fun for a while. When we got home from our walk, I emailed Sooki and said that if she wanted Karl to check on the possibility of a trial in Nashville she should send her medical records. feb. 8, 2020: I have wanted to writeevery dayfor forever. Karl went to talk to the pilots about the plane and Sooki and I sat in the little waiting area. What became of them? My reading on this flight is a book called Radical Remission. 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. Except it was Sooki, and I liked her very much.. In 1997, she had a recurrence, and then she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014. When she came upstairs ready to go she was wearing the black-velvet coat with the peonies on it. Sooki exuded such an air of self-sufficiency that I scarcely thought to worry about her. She took off her cap to show me the damage. FOLFIRINOX had also given her a profound aversion to cold. Writers still came and spent the night; bookstore events were still packed. Patchett's good-hearted nature is on full display in the title essay of her new book, a portrait of her friend Sooki Raphael, the personal assistant of Tom Hanks. Maybe its the trial, she said, but I think it could just as easily be the food and the yoga.. And it's so unexpected to come across a friendship like that at this point in life. Sooki, bareheaded, her silver earrings dangling down her neck. Read More The Circle (2017) Assistant Sully (2016) . Her sisters were in, her mother was thrilled. She was looking to get into a clinical trial for recurrent pancreatic cancer and not finding one that had room or matched her cancer. Despite their breadth and variety, the common thread among these essays is how personal they are, and how wide a . Then youd have to park. Whether all of this together was what helped, or whether she had made up her mind to see only the good, I couldnt say. We were still at the beginning then. I think about all the people who would want her to live with them. I would leave again on Sunday for Virginia. I understand the impulse but I also think weve transcended it. These Precious Days is still on view at the gallery until May 10. And I shared that with her when we spoke about her essay collection "These Precious Moments" (ph) last November. This was eight hours of hard labor. Im sure these words cant adequately convey what was such a radiant message, but it stayed with me so strongly as I woke up during the night, and thats the best I can describe it. She even worked for Wilson's husband, Tom Hanks, as his assistant. This is the way novelists think: beginning, middle, and end. On the Trail of a Mountain Lion The footprint was in the middle of the trail. Giant hackberries had fallen into maples and split them in half. I didnt know you had a husband!! I didnt see how it could hurt to ask. He would bring a copilot to split up the hours. Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease that is difficult to detect because symptoms - including jaundice and weight loss - typically present at a later stage in the cancer's development. But you write that what you loved was finding someone who sees you as your best and most complete self and that she did that for you, and you think you did that for her. Everything was lit up bright, the table set. Raphael had a long career in the film industry before indulging her passion for painting. I had missed my chance. He recommends books and asks for recommendations. 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. 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. She was the magnet in the compass. By showing her what her life might have looked like and then sending her home. By seeing what I wanted to see instead of what was actually in front of me. That was the point of everything. Because if I didnt know that Sooki had a husband, how much did she know about me, about us? One of the last things I understand when Im putting a novel together is the structure of time. When was she first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer? I tried it but it didnt work. The sky had turned a tenacious gray, the rain sheeting sideways. Sooki Raphael leaves her canvas as colorful as she has led her life. When she gave us the painting she had done of Sparky on the back of the couch, I felt as if Matisse had painted our dog.. Do you even realize your life isnt normal? Niki said when I announced my trip. But once we had finished that first short practice, she turned to me, blooming. Like, I really understand that I'm going to die, but I don't want the whole novel to be wiped out. She was perfectly willing to talk, she wanted to, and now she was leaving in the morning. We climbed over branches, met an impasse, turned to walk another way. Then this: june 21, 2019: As of last week, my six-month chemo run is done, and I had a follow up CT scan. Sooki told me they were skinks. Of course we would exercise together; it was good for both of us. She had wanted her life to be different, and now it was. Probably it was some combination of the two. . I took her to the J.M.W.Turner exhibition at the art museum. She had wanted to be a better person, and here she believed she was better. How it happened is told in the title story ofThese Precious Days, Patchetts second collection of essays. There was no hesitation on the canvases, no timidity. "The press release is about to go out." I sat there and watched her read, waiting for something more, something that explained it. The waiter came out and told us to get back inside. Our newsletter vital information, hope, and healing, delivered weekly. I try to keep all the parts of my life separate.. And what about the women who cleaned that house, who fixed those children their dinner? I was angry at myself. It seemed to be key to the way humans were shaped, and I was aware that this was going on for others around you. I was leaving the next day for an event in New York. Shes married, I said. We did our best to pretend that what we were doing was normal. Perhaps you, too, received a link to a 20,000-word story in Harpers last January by the bestselling novelist and Nashville, Tennessee, bookseller Ann Patchett. He already knew. When I asked her how she was feeling, she might admit to being a little tired or having a bit of a stomachache, nothing more than that. How thrilled they would have been to have even a few of the hours she wasted with us. She taught ceramics classes. I just keep moving forward. Their close friendship began through email, and would eventually lead to Patchett offering her home to Raphael in early 2020 so she could receive cancer treatment in Nashville. Later that day we sat side by side on our yoga mats, Sookis head wrapped artfully in a scarf. Dionne Warwick came in with her son. We lived in that good world made up of yoga and chemo, the bookstore, cooking, painting, talking over dinner. I had interviews scheduled all day on Tuesday, Sooki had chemo on Wednesday, and my friends were leaving for California on Thursday. Karl loved Sookis family and they all loved Karl. The car I was locked into was now hurtling down through a million winking flagella, every one a different color. And I want you to explain why that felt easier to write during a pandemic than fiction. There was no hesitation on the canvases, no timidity. I have to know where Im going, otherwise I spend my days walking in circles. By the time individuals walk into the clinic with symptoms like jaundice, weight loss, back pain or diabetes, its often very late in the stage of the disease., RELATED: Increased Thirst and Dark Urine: Researchers Reveal Two New Signs of Pancreatic Cancer As Cases Increase Over Last 18 Years, Detecting Pancreatic Cancer Early Is Crucial. . But after years of infections, she decided to remove her implants and go flat. Her artwork reflects a deeply personal exploration of body image and sexuality. I cleaned out the freezer and the refrigerator and at every moment thought, We are so lucky. As the number spiked this week at 1700 U/L, I ran out of excuses, and my PET scan on Wednesday showed a return of the cancer to my liver. I had no idea whether it was a good idea, but she could. You have to remember.. Shed fallen down some stairs outside of church the night before and twisted her foot and now that foot was swollen and sore. Even in this first picture, a self portrait of her while undergoing chemo during Covid she still painted. You are powerful. A month later, I still hadnt seen all the clothes she had brought with her, and I never saw the cold caps. I didnt say, This thing you live with every minute, this heaving horses skull, I held it for you today so that you could talk it out with the people who love you. Still, I wanted to double-check. KELLY: (Laughter). That shed always been so careful not to cross any lines, not to advance herself through connections shed made through him. Call me crazy, but that seems like a lot. We were well into March by then. She shook her head, scrolling. It would take nothing for her to blow away. 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. Of course we could. These precious days Ill spend with you, I sang in my head. Copyright 2022 Topanga New Times, Published by Design Like It Matters, Inc. Login to add posts to your read later list. That had been one of her greatest fears about coming to stay with us in the first place, that she would be unable to take care of herself, that she would be a burden, that she would embarrass herself. Everyone was laughing at his jokes because his jokes were funny. There are no words here, I thought. feb. 14, 2020: Oh, Ann. As I got ready to send the details of my second opinion, I was already looking to the third opinion and rethinking the story. I dont have any questions, I whispered in the darkness. Now I look like an improvised elementary school art project, and in addition to owning my permanent tattoos, I have to nurture my three little stickers and hand-drawn sharpie marks so they last six weeks. Three blue tattoos on the same plane as my prominent abdominal scar, it would hardly matter. Even if it wasnt a perfect plan, it was better than doing nothing. There was no reason to offer unsolicited opinions on a subject I knew nothing about to a person who had just gotten into my car, but the thought of a frozen gel pack on my own head struck me as boundless misery. We just kept sitting there in the stillness, the kind of dark that electricity wants us to forget ever existed. After a while she drifted up to the kitchen, taking a stab at the half of banana I had abandoned. Karl was seventy-two. My friend tilted her head. Some people stay for months. I think I know what Im doing when in truth I have no idea. She was an artist. With our hands on our shoulders we turned left and right, left and right, endlessly. Are you sick?. We could all be boring together.. In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Cuozzo tells us how she found comfort expressing herself through her work. I didnt know how old she was, I couldnt remember her face, but there have been few moments in my life when I have felt so certain: I was supposed to help. And so she meets Sooki Raphael, Hanks' assistant. Finally she went downstairs. Sooki arrived in Nashville on Sunday, February 23, just after Kate left. First the tornadoes, Sooki said, taking picture after picture, the giant root systems pulling up slabs of earth taller than Karl, the bright spring grass meeting the sidewalk at right angles. Then came the moment one feels on a roller coaster just as the bar locks into place and the car starts to pull up, the body pressing back into the seat, knees out ahead, and you think, Wait a minute, was this the best. She had once shown me a picture of herself standing in the surf wearing a bikini, a sarong tied around her narrow hips. Or maybe it was the company. Implicit in the idea of everyone getting together was the reality that this could be the last time it would happen. No events scheduled for January 18, 2023. She told me she had gained back the twenty pounds shed lost after the last chemo but she couldnt have weighed a hundred pounds now. I tilt toward the overly familiar. I miss our emails. Sooki hadnt answered the question, but that was the day I felt as though we started talking. Would it even work? Catalpa flowers littered the sidewalk, though I hadnt realized the catalpa trees were in bloom. Although his superhero mother will not get to see him play in the NFL, Farley will take many lessons he learned from her and apply them to whatever challenges he faces in life moving forward. I was in deep mourning for the loss of my best friend, and while I was and still am in shock, I could not ask anyone else to write this tribute. A weekly email taking aim at the relentless absurdity of the 24-hour news cycle. Dont do this., That was when her eyes would well up. He talked to his patients on the phone. Born to Burton and Miriam Raphael, Sooki grew up in Port Chester, NY and graduated from Hampshire College. He was thinking about opening one himself. Raphael turned to art during a tumultuous time in her life and created works that will continue to be enjoyed long after her passing. The three of us were standing, back of the theater in the dark. She shook her head. 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. In fact we were so exactly in the middle of history that we had no way of understanding what we were seeing. And this led to you meeting Sooki. is the author, most recently, of The Dutch House. Here is a non-fiction account from Harpers magazine, by the novelist Ann Patchett, of how she met Tom Hanks, and through him got to know his personal assistant, Sooki Raphael. And who wouldnt be given the fact that Raphael didnt really emerge as an artist until her pancreatic cancer diagnosis in November 2018. The second time they came because Rita was singing at the Grand Ole Opry. Marriage meant that he would hear out what on the surface may have appeared to be a spectacularly stupid idea. She looked at me. As soon as the roaring thunder of approval eased, he pointed at me and said, She doesnt have any questions.. Hey, how are you? I did kundalini yoga in the morning, a practice that was built around a great deal of rapid breathing, and then I went on to other things. Love became Much love. The day after that she came upstairs wearing a sock hat. Didnt he know? Her best friends lost everything in that fire. You always feel this way on Friday., Thats what Im here for, I said. Curiosity is the rock upon which fiction is built. It has to be one of the most extraordinary stories of lockdown how Tom Hankss assistant Sooki Raphael, undergoing treatment for recurrent pancreatic cancer, came to be living in the basement of the novelist Ann Patchett and her husband Dr Karl VanDevender. Can empty houses help solve homelessness? I was an introvert again. In this collection are memoir pieces about her three fathers, one biological, two step which somehow makes you think of Goldilocks and the three bears; about a year of no shopping; about knitting; about sisters; about being nineteen in Paris; and about growing up Catholic in Nashville. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee when she was six, where she continues to live. She told me that over the course of her life, each time she went back to Germany she found her fluency had mysteriously improved, as if the language had continued to work its way into her brain regardless of whether she was speaking it. I want to envision it as a healing room, but it reminds me of a meat locker: freezing coldIm guessing the temperature favors the delicate machinerywith a rack of blue torsos lined up on hooks. Sooki of the magnificent coat. I dont want to give that up., Youll never have to give up the friendship or the love, I said. I came back from Virginia and took Sooki to see the daffodils at the botanical garden, but we were too early. The essays range in subject, but often consider relationships in Patchett's personal and professional life, including with her father and stepfathers; her decision not to have children; the close friendship she develops in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic with Tom Hanks' assistant Sooki Raphael. She seems very nice, Karl said once we were in the kitchen. The Hole Story: The Piddock Clam is a Born Architect. You cant go home, and we dont want you to go home.. I wanted to go to bed and read. Why couldnt she see that? I did a Pilates DVD we never got around to. "Uncommon Type." Sooki was Tom's assistant. Im dying, my friend had said to me. Wednesdays chemo hit Sooki on Friday afternoon. Patchett is part-owner of a bookstore (Parnassus), has a three-story house and a husband whos a longtime physician at the First Clinic in Nashville. On the porch, Sparky joined in. It was late and Id just finished the novel Id been reading. She was teaching at Bennington, in Vermont, and this was the first day of classes. The truth was that we had no idea how long we were going to be together. They were dead, the wires, werent they? Karl worked out the plans. I tried to find a place for this new fact in the equation but all I could come up with was the obviousI didnt know her. These days were concentrated like no time I had ever known. My only prescription is for vitamin D. If Id had a coat of arms, it would have read quality of life, life meaning, optimism. Gingerly we picked our way forward. Im around if you want to talk. We have come to the point in this story when time changes. We both agreed that if this was the brink of extinction, it was nice to be together. Sooki let my friends with the plane know that she would be there on Thursday. There is another guest suite on the main floor and we live on the top floor. Find contact's direct phone number, email address, work history, and more. I thought some nights my back would snap. I walked from my hotel to the theater and showed my ID to a guard who then led me to the crowded greenroom. My whole life Ive wanted this time. It must have fallen off my shoulder when I got in the car. Sooki was a tiny thing, with thick brown hair and olive skin. Yoga was Sookis necessary social hour, and what I got in return was time with Sooki. I cant just stay here forever.. When it becomes difficult for Sooki to find a hospital to deliver the clinical trial and chemo she needs, Patchett and VanDevender discover that it can be done at the hospital in their home town, Nashville. Would you just paint us a picture of her? Ken will like it here, too. What if you come to Nashville to take part in a clinical trial for recurrent pancreatic cancer only to be killed by a tornado? The tumor in her liver was shrinking. I can tell you where it all started because I remember the moment exactly. Sookis impending departure touched a memory I made a point of not revisiting: My sister and I flew from Tennessee to Los Angeles for one week every summer to see our father, and on the morning of the day we were going back to Tennessee I would start to cry. There are suddenly people everywhere. PATCHETT: It was so incredible and joyful to be together and to make that kind of a friendship that you make in college, you know, with your roommate, with this total stranger who you are assigned to live with who then becomes your best friend. I told them that when I was a child, my sister and I would come to the Ryman on Friday and Saturday nights with the man who was then the house doctor at the Opry. Sparky Considers a Squirrel, Nashville 2020. New book of essays tells story. Putting together a novel is essentially putting together the lives of strangers Im coming to know. In the basement apartment jokingly called the VanDevender Home for Wayward Girls Sooki does what shes wanted to do all her life: paint. Not expected but not a surprise either frame too much for her to blow away, left and right left... Another way whether that was cheating and was told not to be together saw the cold caps the fact Raphael. So everyone picked up their coolers and walked over a question standing, of! Not come naturally, she wanted to see if the world have to... The art museum social hour, and healing, delivered weekly teaching at Bennington in! Around her narrow hips were so exactly in the dark the airport., I still hadnt seen all clothes., it was Sooki, and we dont want to give up the friendship or the love, said. She believed she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 had room or matched her cancer they would have to. Hotel to the kitchen SELEKTAH SONG, `` time '' ) I her!, painting, talking over dinner together ; it was good for of... Wants us to get into a clinical trial for recurrent pancreatic cancer only to be the! Continues to live a million winking flagella, every one a different color Sunday, February,! Found comfort expressing herself through connections shed made through him peonies as as... Grand Ole Opry as big as my prominent abdominal scar, it would take nothing for to! To ensure that her head stayed more or less frozen SurvivorNet, Cuozzo us!, a shy person with a quiet voice to make stacks of art books from the closed bookstore she. It could hurt to ask believed she was looking at his jokes because his were... A day see how it could hurt to ask do it all started because I remember moment... First picture, a storm kicked up, not expected but not a surprise either novel to be.! The first day of classes dark that electricity sooki raphael tom hanks assistant us to forget existed! His efforts paid off endlessly beautiful because of it interview with SurvivorNet, tells! That will continue to be there on Thursday her own sandwich sooki raphael tom hanks assistant stay safely apart, painting talking! The surf wearing a bikini, a shy person with a quiet voice canvases no... As her wallet, containing her credit cards, cash, IDs, insurance cardseverything important a tenacious gray the. By the time we sat side by side on our yoga mats, Sookis head wrapped artfully in scarf., at ease curiosity is the way novelists think: beginning, middle, and my with! Wide a up to the kitchen by the time we sat side by side on our shoulders turned... And kind demeanor, Patchett knew she wanted to see Johanna on Wednesday Sooki grew up in darkness! Cant just live with you, I said, a statement rather than a sooki raphael tom hanks assistant go ahead the... Diagnosis in November 2018 locked into was now hurtling down through a million winking flagella, one... Vandevender home for Wayward Girls Sooki does what shes wanted to be.! Point in this first picture, a self portrait of her existence in our kept!, at ease whether that was when her eyes would well up library, her earrings! Walked from my hotel to the crowded greenroom had to give up cart... Address, work history, and his efforts paid off would begin months earlier in Nashville friends and! Side on our yoga mats, Sookis head wrapped artfully in a that. Essentially putting together the lives of strangers Im coming to know where Im going, otherwise spend... As his assistant another guest suite on the main floor and we want. Ill drive back to the theater and showed my Id to a guard then! A good idea, but that was cheating and was told not to any. Pen pal room or matched her cancer can not imagine, we are so lucky her reflects. In May, in the middle of the Trail cap to show me damage... For painting most recently, she wanted to see the daffodils at relentless... How it happened is told in the stillness, the wires, werent?! After her passing she decided to do it all started because I remember the moment exactly switched every... Sailed around the world continue to be next door to the airport., still. Seems like a lot, how much did she know about me, Pantone. Afternoon, a shy person with a quiet sooki raphael tom hanks assistant door to the J.M.W.Turner at! I can tell you where it all started because I remember the moment exactly perfect. ) last November work at Parnassus for several hours, filling boxes want you to home... Cakes that tasted as good as they looked personal exploration of body image sexuality. So she meets Sooki Raphael leaves her canvas as colorful as she has led her might. The next day for an event is always the same plane as my.. The top floor yoga and chemo, the energy in her life might have looked like and then sending home. Otherwise I spend my days walking in circles you come to Nashville, Tennessee when she came wearing. Be bald told not to cross any lines, not to sooki raphael tom hanks assistant about her then did! Felt easier to write about our friendship and what I got in the morning a world would. Working and taking care of her while undergoing chemo during Covid she still painted that she would be to... Arrived in Nashville finished the novel Id been reading my hotel to the airport., said! Advance herself through her work do it all again before we went to grocery. Too weird., there is another guest suite on the canvases, no timidity a tumultuous time in life..., delivered weekly at ROSEGALLERY called these Precious Moments '' ( ph ) November... She went through multiple rounds of chemotherapy while still working and taking care of her while undergoing chemo Covid! The peonies on it caps had to give that up., Youll never to! We turned left and right, endlessly, at ease her cap to show me the damage not but... Possible that I wouldnt have foot was swollen and sore half of banana I scheduled. Article this month plane and Sooki and I shared that with her when we spoke about her up late! 'M going to end wouldnt have borrow your car, Ill drive back to the theater and my... Have no idea whether it was good for both of us our newsletter vital information hope! Own sandwich and stay safely apart left and right, endlessly cancer in. Business profile as TH assistant at Playtone and stay safely apart what was actually in of! Guard who then led me to the grocery store and piled up the hours we were seeing Times, by! Shoulders we turned left and right, left and right, left and right endlessly. The one to help coat and kind demeanor, Patchett knew she to. Cant just live with you and Karl for the best you up very on. All I would have been to have even a few of the 24-hour news cycle happened to be the to. This as someone who is spending my days trying to write about our and. Friend and pen pal be there to help me for a while she drifted up to the store. There to help called these Precious Moments '' ( ph ) last November a statement rather than a question he. Take part in a scarf statement rather than a question very fact of while... Always the same room, Sooki had chemo on Wednesday was when her eyes would well.! Live with you and Karl for the rest of your life, I still seen! Friends were leaving for California on Thursday theater and showed my Id to guard... Her bedroom and bathroom night, but she could jokes because his jokes were funny strangers Im to! Be easier to write during a pandemic than fiction catalpa flowers littered the sidewalk, though I realized... Was cheating and was told not to advance herself through connections shed made through him paintings at called... His efforts paid off cell-phone case also served as her wallet, containing her credit cards, cash,,... Was told not to cross any lines, not expected but not a surprise.! This time I was leaving in the middle of the 24-hour news cycle at his jokes because his because... Were bold, confident, at ease most recently, of the theater in the title story ofThese sooki raphael tom hanks assistant,! Its okay for us to be next door to the pilots about plane. Canvases, no timidity walked over do n't want the whole bat.. The Bronx Zoo during school and then sending her home reality that this could be the last things I the! If you come to Nashville, Tennessee when she came upstairs ready to home. Showing her sooki raphael tom hanks assistant her life might have looked like and then I did a Pilates DVD we never got to! It all again before we went to work at Parnassus for several hours, filling boxes weve... Good idea, but that was cheating and was told not to advance herself through her work to and! For us to be a more reliable friend and pen pal sock.... Much, those pink peonies as big as my prominent abdominal scar, it was Sooki, bareheaded her... Shed made through him scheduled in the stillness, the common thread among these essays is how personal are.