Patrick Meadows and Stephanie Shepard Memorial Site
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
It’s really hard to say goodbye sometimes. Years ago my sister Heather said that it’s sad when we lose a member of the family, but it’s especially sad when we lose “one of the good ones.” Therefore I am deeply saddened to report that we had a death in our family yesterday, one of the […]
This is another autobiographical story with a familiar theme–Patrick and Mari’s journey to Izmir, Turkey. I’ve made only minor edits. About nine o’clock in the morning, Mari and I stepped down from the train onto the platform in Istanbul. Beside us were the two bulging suitcases I had wrestled from Luxemburg to Paris, from there […]
I’ve been busy working on a web site for my adopted parents and haven’t had a chance to do much here on Patrick-Meadows.com. My brother Randy has scanned thousands of pictures for the new site from their dozens of photo albums. He also just scanned the attached photos from 20 years ago. Stephanie had been […]
Several years before Patrick died he began sending me manuscripts and documents, boxes of them. During a 2014 visit we discussed these a bit, then shifted gears slightly to my own collection. This is that short recording. JPI’m the son of Patrick of Meadows.
With so many different memories and images in my head I thought about writing something on Father’s Day, but instead I spent the time with family and watched little Max and his father Aaron together, glad to be part of that family, a designated grandfather through my connection with Jessica. JPI’m the son of Patrick […]