6/20/2013

Skip Wagner was an old friend from Vegas who we had lost contact with about a dozen years ago. Sharon Bergstrom saw him in Santa Cruz, letting me know he was still around,  and I found him by using his old address on Pioneer Way, just north of Vegas. We've exchanged a couple of emails since. I'm afraid he wasn't in a very good mood in regard his life as an artist. Even though he is getting between a thousand and four thousand for his work he said he felt like quitting because the art world was so phony and corrupt. He was one of the founders on the Burning Man event in the desert, but he put that down too, because it has gotten too commercial. One of the twins lives in Belgium, so he is back and forth quite a bit. All of his girls are doing well, aside from the fact one twin may lose a breast to cancer. He calls himself an "environmental sculptor." Seems an accurate designation.

 Birth and Death in the Family...

On Feb. 19 Nasima gave birth to baby girl that she named Cora Elizabeth. Cora was Sue's grandmother's name on her mother's side. Nasima's change of diet and overall improvement of her health made this birth easy and better than Liam's birth 11 years ago. When hard labor began she popped the kid out in 5 minutes. Everyone present at the birth was amazed at how good Cora looked on arrival, and that included Sue and Kai who flew there for the birth.(At the same time I was home battling the worst phase of my illness. Cathy and Bill were my nurses.) I have seen Cora twice since the birth and we got along well. She is not a fussy baby and happily gets passed from one person to the next with no problems. Both Sue and I are goony about her, and behave like two delirious grandparents who are so happy Nasima had a girl. Nasima is proud she did such a good job and she should be. She is already talking about having another child. I think she is serious. She will be 39 in July.

Mary Ellen lost her battle with cancer, succumbing to the disease about six weeks ago. She was in great pain at the end so it was a good thing her suffering has stopped. There was no way I could make it to the funeral. Her brother Paul gave a great speech about his sister. He had everyone either laughing or crying. Mary Ellen was important to us, especially for Sue, because she was the one who finally found out what happened to her father. Took her about six weeks. She had the requisite skills on the computer and that made the difference. She did make a trip to Arizona in January so we had a chance to see her and hug her and express our gratitude close up the help she gave us. She was a little bit in love with me and I was certainly very fond of her.  In many ways I regret I did not get closer to the Stetka family growing up. It was my uncle Joe's family and my dad was never that fond of Joe who was a drunk and a Republican. (There were two tragic deaths yesterday. In the morning Ace reporter Michael Hastings was killed in a car crash and later in the day we learned that James Goldolfini died while vacationing in Rome. Chris Hayes discussed Hastings last night on his program and today a lot of media were talking about Tony Soprano.)

Another death was that of Sue's Uncle Jim Conn, whose heart gave out at 95. He was the apple of his mother's eyes but made excuses for not seeing her very often. He'd tell her he'd see her on this or that Holiday and then change his mind. Suzie's mom, who was considered the runt of the litter, was Cora's most reliable child and saw to it that she was well taken care of in her declining years. She died at 92.  Sue and Nasima saw Jim three years ago and were shocked how he lived. The house Suzie raved about 40 years was now a total mess. Outside plants were encroaching on the inside of the house and there was water under the rugs, making a squish noise when you walked over them. Jim was losing it and didn't seemed to care. Three years ago he told Sue he would leave her $5,000 to go to Cookville, TN., to bury his ashes next to his mother. That was pure bullshit, typical of Jim. When Sue talked to his lawyer after his death he said he had never heard of that plan; he wanted to be buried with other world war two vets in a memorial park in Detroit  where he had lived since the 1950s. His claim to fame and what got him a lot of work as an architect was he had something to do with the Golden Arch in St. Louis. All things considered, the dude was self-absorbed and very selfish, thinking only about himself.

By the way there was surprise when I contacted Sharon. Her son "Broiler" Pitt was in possession of one of my late paintings which I had originally given to Skip Wagner. Broiler sent me a photo of the painting. I am glad to have and I think it is a damn good painting.