Thanksgiving

Rick’s favorite meal was the Thanksgiving dinner. But he used to hate the small talk and felt bored at the family functions. One time at my sister’s Thanksgiving I suggested that he brings his guitar and after the meal, he played a bunch of Beatles songs and other songs. He could figure out any song by ear and play it. Everyone loved it.

Since 2012 we started making it a tradition to play music at Thanksgiving. That’s my Rick! That’s the rock star that I fell in love with. He was so happy to be playing. That inspired him to play music again, after being out of the business for 30 years.

Rick got his old band mate to play acoustic duets. Over the years they made their own CDs but never played live. For several years they played gigs around town as acoustic duet and then they got a drummer, bass player and saxophonist. His last gig was at Genghis Cohen when he was 64. He was happy again playing music for about 4 years. Then it became unbearable because he couldn’t remember his own lyrics and he was frustrated that he couldn’t be his old self like the Superman rock performer that he used to be. If he couldn’t play at his best, he preferred not to play anymore. He was so hard on himself. I watched him become very depressed and sad about what was happening to him. It didn’t matter what I said to him to try and change his mind, he was so disappointed in himself. We suffered together