May 1st, Cotherstone

Hooray hooray the first of may… and here I am back in cotherstone, not on a ‘plane back to New York as planned…

the sad news is the reason for the return: dear sweet Liz died a couple days ago, just as I had landed in london from menorca. I was planning to come up to see her for 24 hours before heading back across the pond today… so now I will stay on here for the funeral and thanksgiving service next week, after which I will hightail it back to nyc in time to do a quick recording session and then fly to chicago early the following morning to inter mum’s ashes… jeez…

But all in all, Liz’s timing was impeccable: she slipped away while I was still over here rather than back in nyc – a day later would have meant another very expensive and time-consuming transatlantic shuffle – but she also waited long enough for me to have those two beautiful weeks in menorca, for which I will always be grateful.

The other silver lining is that Sam and I get another week together. And if it ever stops raining (actually, even if it doesn’t), in between planning the ceremonies with cousin David and taking care of business, I hope to take some of Liz’s favourite walks around here – I have no car until Diana comes back down from scotland, so they will be local ones out of necessity, which is appropriate – and I will hang out with mr. monteverdi and the mandola in the evenings…

It’s truly the end of an era… she was the last of her generation, they’re all gone now. And it feels really different here, suddenly, really empty. I knew this was coming, but it’s hitting harder than I thought…