Category: Stories

Testimonials

When It Was Alice’s Time

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Cousin Steve Adler-Golden:  That Friday morning when Alice woke up and the woman came to help her with her pills, something was not all right. The woman left and came back with a nurse who found Alice in her bedroom on the floor. There Alice was when the phone call came in to Mark, and we all went to her apartment and said goodbye to her body. The staff had wrapped her neatly in a blanket, like a gift. We sat quietly.  Mark washed her hands, feet and face. Alice would have approved, I thought. Though she would have asked

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You probably thought Alice was an only Child…

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Ken Schafer: You probably thought Alice was an only Child…  and yet… Watch the video above, then, if you think you can handle it, click the button below. This video was from a Forensics class at Lasel College where she and several other “villagers” (residents of the Lasel Village) put together a crime scene, a murder in fact, which the class had to solve. Or at least that’s what she claimed!…!

Two circles closed: Alice and Chick

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Mark Schafer: Alice, who was quite tone deaf—see Annika’s post with Alice singing her own, unique melody to “Happy Birthday”!—loved jazz. (She also somehow was able to pick out a pair of stereo speakers that had such great sound that I promptly went out and got a pair of the exact same speakers for myself. Go figure.) At some point in the mid-late 70s, Alice and Bert got a upright piano—I think because Scott was going to take piano lessons. (Photo to come). Ever the quirky (or practical) pair, they put the piano in the the kitchen. I never took lessons,

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A portrait of Alice’s apartment, as she left it on Friday, Feb 19 (self-portrait of Alice)

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Mark Schafer:  These are photos I took of Alice’s apartment when we got there on Friday morning, the day she passed on. I barely touched anything: it is as she left it. As I looked around, it seemed to me that her apartment reflected so much of who she was/is: plants; sculptures everywhere—including nested in the sofa and even in the kitchen sink!—just dusted?—; cats everywhere; Black Lives Matter buttons all over; Gay Pride flags in several rooms; family photos not just on the fridge by over the stove too; files labeled “Nature”, “Play”, “Racism”, “Soul Matters”. And as we

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My Third Mother

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Marjorie Salvadon:  I’m writing with the sad news of Alice Schafer’s transition. I always say that I was lucky to have had Alice, my third mother, who entered my life 22 years ago to accompany me in adulthood, always supporting me as I learned the dance of juggling teaching, parenting, writing. From the first time I met Alice, I knew she was a special person: friendly, curious, intellectually alive, and someone with strong political convictions who didn’t lean “Democrat” or “Republican” — she leaned toward justice. One example among many: in the 1960s Alice and Bert (her husband) were deeply

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A Strange Transformation of my car, with Photos

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Alice Schafer (from an email dated 8/17/2011):  You’ve all heard my story but now it comes with illustrations…. My Toyota Corolla changed from red to black to silver, all in one week! It’s been red for the last 12 years since Bert and I purchased it, and I assumed it would stay that way for the next six years. But no… After driving eight uneventful miles to a routine medical appointment, as soon as I stepped out, I smelled and saw smoke escaping from the hood. With my “Oh, I gotta fix it” instinct, I reached into the driver’s side

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