Where is Eric? So many come and go. Fast friends lost.

Where is Ruanda? I asked that a few years back. Has anyone heard from Ruanda?

“Oh, honey, she died.”

We were supposed to go to the aquarium together. She had invited me, with a big smile on her face. We had become friends just weeks before. I first met her when she visited the Path with Art choir one day.

At the big gala opening of the awesome new art space, which was attended by many and a lot of fun, by the way, I had a similar conversation.

“We should get her involved again. We should do something with her.” I was talking about a teaching artist that another teaching artist had mentioned.

“She died last year.”

Again with this!? I never seem to get the memos.

I easily lose track of time. I do not know why. It is a strange part of my makeup. I shutter myself away in my own little world.

She was a force. I could tell when first meeting her. I have read more about her life, including her work as an artist and a mother. She was definitely a force. I am sad that future collaborations are no longer possible, at least on this earthly realm.

I have a dream that a circle of us students, or participant artists as they now call us, come together to write cards to those who go missing for whatever reasons — moving, working, living. I want to keep in touch with those of my friends who go missing from our community.

By the way, where is Michael?