Patrick and Stephanie

Thinking about Patrick on his 89th birthday.

Dear Patrick (One Year Later)

| Letters, Patrick's Family

A letter to Patrick, written one year after his death, but not shared on the website until much later.

On Tribes and Family

| Patrick's Family, Recordings

Here’s a 2014 recording of a conversation about friends and family and the choices we make, Patrick said “Choose the people that are important in your life.” It’s good to hear his voice again.

Meeting Stephanie, the Story of Lois and her Boyfriends, and More

| Patrick, Patrick's Family, Recordings, Stephanie

This long recording (almost 20 minutes) from 9 November 2012 is too large to upload to this web site, but here is an imperfect transcription. UPDATE on 17 Nov 2022: I was able to use a different approach to upload the audio, so you can hear his voice once more, telling this story. The recording […]

Five Years On

How can it be? How can today already be the fifth anniversary of Patrick’s passing, when we still mourn him, when his voice still fills our ears, his letters fill our eyes, his drawings still encourage, his wine glasses still complete our evenings with their use? How can it be five years when so much […]

Born on Borrowed Time

| Patrick's Family, Recordings

If you have read the earlier posting Our Stories Intertwine Like a Kitten’s Yarn, you know about Patrick and Donna’s trip to Cuba in 1955. In October 2014 during our trip to Prescott, we had a longer conversation about it, recorded in two parts. Here I’ve combined the two transcriptions into one. In this conversation […]

Audio Added to Conversation about Donna

In 2011 Patrick and I discussed how he met my mother. Seven years later I added a rough transcription of that recording to this site, but the audio file itself was too large to share. Now the technology has changed so you too can listen to us talk. Here’s a link to the entry, with […]

The Whispers Between the Shouts

Here’s a conversation with Patrick about learning how to really listen to music. It was recorded in his living room on 19 November 2011, near 11 PM. PM: ….. was a great moment for me ……… a few years back, I went to, to hear Rostropovich conducting. I think it’s called the Leningrad Symphony of […]

Coincidental Dates

Knowing that there is a maximum of 366 days in a year, it’s natural that given enough time there would be overlaps in events, and so there are. For example, my first day as a racetrack volunteer happened to fall on Gretchen’s birthday. On the fifth anniversary of my dad John’s death–a personal low in […]

Thirty Years Ago Today

Three and a half years ago–well, if you’re familiar with this site you know what happened. It’s no secret that I think of my dad Patrick often, and miss him, and–you know, all that stuff. Today however is a bigger milestone. Thirty years ago today my dad John passed away. JPI’m the son of Patrick […]

Patrick Would Laugh

Patrick would be laughing like crazy because I have been cooking so much since February. He always tried to get me to learn to cook, but I like eating in restaurants too much and it felt like too much trouble to do it for just one person, even though that’s what he did. Anyway, I […]

Mem-Mari

| Autobiographical, Patrick's Family

Create a montage of those events that most often recur in memory. Mari got a a job teaching elementary art in Centereach. We found a cottage in Lake Ronkokoma to rent. Since she was teaching under the name on her teaching certificate, we lived under that name – last name Irvin. Her sister Nancy and […]

Uncle JP

Of the various awards I’ve earned over the years, the badges of honor that mean the most to me now are the titles “Granddaddy” and “Uncle JP.” As I write this I’m in Florida in that latter role while Abby deals with the sudden and unexpected loss of Rui, my niece’s new dad. I’m here […]

Hard to Say Goodbye