John and Jill

On the weekend I went to a party. John and Jill were there. They are both younger than I am—they are around fifty years old, I think. John is an actor singer; he leads a blocal band called Spirit of the West and he is currently in rehearsal for a show written on which he has collaborated with our mutual friend Morris Paynch. It is called Waiting Room. It has a lot of my friends in it. It is a miracle that it is happening and it is likely going to be extremely powerful.

It’s going to be powerful because John has Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (E-OA). Jill is earning her sainthood caring for him. He needs her help or he cannot function. He is already severely challenged intellectually. All of us who see how Jill cares for John are blessed to be witness to their love and their way of living with a devastating impact of E-OA.

It was fascinating to hear how they are running rehearsals. Jill attends every one and will be beside John throughout the run of the show. Everyone including the Arts Club is determined to make this happen, to give John a last kick at the can before the disease takes him away. It is going to make an incredible impact, I suspect, when it opens.

Jill and I got to into a wonderful discussion because she, like me, is dealing with the commercialization of an autobiographical story—she has just completed a workshop of her play about a woman whose partner develops E-OA. Both of us are authors and subject and both of us discovered the importance of telling at least one lie in our story so that we can say that it is not all true to viewers of our work.

Monday, I went for a lovely Autumn walk.

There was a parade of tug boats in False Creek for some
reason that appealed to the little boy in me.

See that little Locg Ness monster in the upper right of
this photo? That was one of three otters in lost lagoon.
Otters and river otters are back with a vengeance and I
could not be happier. They are to-die-for cute.