37 Comments
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Barbara  Bean's avatar

This is beautiful.

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

He was beautiful.

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

Did you ever meet him? You would have liked each other,

He lived here not quite a year before he died in Nov. 1991.

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Star Mapper's avatar

Beautiful memory

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

What a guy.

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Esther Merves's avatar

Love his artwork. What an amazing person.

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

Yup.

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Frederick Fullerton's avatar

Beautiful story and art. Thanks for sharing.

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Barbara Bash's avatar

I love this story of collaboration - the way he invited everyone in to help him complete his work - the forest. Thank you.

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

He was the kindest, funniest, most modest, and all around talented, generous guy. Maybe a genius, certainly a guru of sorts. He's been talking to me from the bardo. Next week I'm putting his and my mother's ashes in the ground. I hope our conversation does not dim.

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Verna Gillis's avatar

It took my ten years to deal with Brads Ashe’s until I knew where they truly belonged. Life after death is about those of us who remain

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

I get it.

His ashes are from 1991; my mother's from 2004. They've been waiting in the bardo ever since. Now I have a natural burial plot in the Tilson woods.

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Martha Abraham's avatar

Oh Rebecca! I hope this graces your home!

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

It does. He was amazing. One-of-a-kind.

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Zita Rasid's avatar

Oh, Reb……what a beautiful memory…..I had to re-read it and looked at the photo of this masterpiece for a long time…it’s beautiful…..A gift for your memory…….so special…….xoxo

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

Yep. He was amazing. Generous and gracious right to the end. Thanks for your loving words, ZR. I will be burying both my parents this coming weekend.

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Zita Rasid's avatar

I , as well, am in the process of taking care of my parents’ ashes……I will be thinking of you, Reb.

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

They will be joining Doria in a natural burial ground. Everyone and everything there is bio-degradable. I did not want to scatter their ashes (or hers) to the wind. I want to be able to occasionally stop by and say Hi.

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Sherri Vita Mojica's avatar

Wow!💕💕💕

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

Yes.

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Laura Shaine's avatar

So touching!

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

Favor: I would be very grateful if you would recommend my Substack to your network of friends.

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

Thank you, Laura.

He was a gem.

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Joan Marlow Golan's avatar

I also love the forest painting, even more because it was a collaborative effort and labor of love.

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Joan Marlow Golan's avatar

What a great story, Bex! I still remember how charming and kind I found your dad the one time I met him.

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

He was all that and more.

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Bonnie FARBER's avatar

What a beautiful portrait and memorial you have created through your words and your father's paintings, Becky...

It reminds me of a paragraph in Stephen Spender's poem " The Truly Great:" :

"What is precious, is never to forget

The essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs

Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth.

Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light

Nor its grave evening demand for love.

Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother

With noise and fog, the flowering of the spirit. "

I love that you drew his forest and it's peopled with his friends' brushing and touching ....

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

Yes, Bonnie. You understand. Thank you for this beautiful poem. I am burying his and my mother's ashes next week and I fully believe he, in the bardo, urged me to write this now, before he goes underground.

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Bonnie FARBER's avatar

I am glad to find out about the bardo ... where does it come from ? Tibetan Buddhism ?

It must have a rich tradition and sounds more accessible than Purgatory ...!

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

I became familiar with the term through George Saunder’s book, Lincoln in the Bardo. in which Abe visit with his favorite son Willy in the graveyard. It is also a Buddhist term.

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Julie Thompson-Dobkin's avatar

Beautiful...a great way to contribute to a living legacy!

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Esther Merves's avatar

So beautiful ❤️❤️❤️

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Nan Tepper's avatar

So beautiful. So many different ways. Love this, Rebecca.

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Rebecca Kalin's avatar

Thank you, Nan.

This 100w came to me out-of-blue, like a paper airplane smacking the side of the head. I believe this is so because Vic is hanging around in the bardo, along with my mother, waiting for their ashes to finally go somewhere--which they will soon. Vic was one-of-a-kind amazing. I miss him everyday. Coffee, sometime soon? www.victorkalin.com

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