Tag: death

Arrivederci, Ernesto: A Remembrance of Professor Ernest B. Gilman (1946-2026)

Professor Ernest Gilman, my friend and mentor, died last week. Many called him Ernie, but I always called him Ernesto. He seemed to enjoy it. It was a holdover from his days teaching at NYU Florence, where, I learned at his funeral service, his full title was Ernesto il Magnifico! I never called him that. Ernesto was one of the… Read more

Revisiting “Cancer Vs. Blindness”

*I’m facing another biopsy this week and I’m trying not to freak out! Besides hoping that the results are negative, I’m also crossing my fingers that I’ll not have to deal with ableism at the doctor’s office like last time… With respect to making lemonade out of a sour situation, “Cancer Vs. Blindness” was the first essay I wrote for… Read more

The Blind Feeding the Lame: Growing Disabled with Dad * Essay & Live RISK Performance

NOTE 2023: My RISK! performance is rebroadcast for Father’s Day! * This essay about the very different experiences my father and I had growing disabled first appeared at Catapult last June. I performed a storytelling version for a live taping of the Risk! Podcast, which aired in December in an episode called “Quality Time.” Scroll down for the performance followed… Read more

“LEE GOODIN, SAN FRANCISCO” Dad’s Letters to the Editor, 2007

On the first anniversary of my father’s death, I’m grateful to my stepmother for sending me three of his letters to the editor, clipped from the San Francisco Chronicle. One of them—from August 19 , was published eleven years to the day before his death. It’s humor apparently hit the mark, as the editors used his words “erector set” to… Read more

A Personal Obituary for My Dad, Lee A. Goodin, February 5, 1940-August 19, 2018

My dad, Lee A. Goodin, passed away into other realms on Sunday. He’d been fighting so many illnesses for several years, and yet I hadn’t seen the cardiac arrest coming. Somehow, I thought I’d have warning. Yet he had given me warning. Earlier this summer, he told me he’d decided to stop aggressive care for the infections that riddled his… Read more

Helen Keller Quotes Explosion

You kneel on the floor with two loop pedals in front of you. Above you hangs a projected red curtain and an empty spotlight. you say, “Oh, fuck it,” and hit one of the pedals, which causes The Star of Happiness theme song instrumental interlude to play. “I was born with a degenerative eye disease called…” you hit the loop… Read more