She wrote her thesis on bats and rabies. And you will be surprised by how comforting it is to be very sick with an actual doctor upstairs. I had pictured her going through this alone, a conclusion I reached on account of a lack of information and a florid imagination. She was Tom Hankss assistant and there was work to do. The caps had to be switched out every twenty-five minutes during treatment to ensure that her head stayed more or less frozen. It becomes a path into the woods. We talked about what we were reading and what we wanted to accomplish that day. If I can borrow your car, Ill drive back to the airport., I shook my head. How it happened is told in the title story ofThese Precious Days, Patchetts second collection of essays. When it was over, I managed to make my way into the shower, perhaps the biggest single accomplishment of my life. Then Sooki and I went to the kitchen, mixed our pre-measured packets of mushroom powder in with yogurt, and poisoned ourselves. I am hopeful and feeling radical. Although his superhero mother will not get to see him play in the NFL, Farley will take many lessons he learned from her and apply them to whatever challenges he faces in life moving forward. Its why I dont like to go to other peoples houses for dinner: I never want to tell people Im a vegetarian. Sooki and I stood together in the kitchen, one of us washing the vegetables, the other one chopping, making it up as we went along. Ours was an ephemeral connection common to the modern world, writes Patchett. The trick was coming up with the nerve to confess our plans to Karl. Of course we are.. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. She shouldnt stay for us or leave for us. Ken would come later. Karl spent a huge amount of time studying weather as part of his instrument-rating prep. They had turned off the heat PATCHETT: Or they turned it down to whatever level would keep the pipes from freezing. I emailed him at work. Now Sooki and I sorted through them like old baseball cards. Susan Joan Sooki Raphael of Topanga, CA passed peacefully on April 25th surrounded by friends, family, color, light, joy, and love. This was the closest I could come to understanding what happened to Sooki. Yoga and meditation for an hour in the morning was augmented with yoga and meditation for an hour at night. I said I thought it would be easier to be bald. I lost her for a while, and then she was back again. I was going only for the night. You have to remember.. Wed stood together in the dark of a Washington theater for a matter of minutes a year and a half earlier. Really? She traveled the world as the personal assistant to one of Hollywoods biggest stars. At Harper's Magazine, author Ann Patchett relates working with Tom Hanks, through which she meets and befriends his assistant, Sooki. Surely there would be a story there for one of us. Karl was seventy-two. But they had survived. How was that possible? How did she have twenty-eight vials of blood in her? NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Small, flat islands of boiled wool were resolutely attached to her scalp by the 2percent of hair that had not fallen out. I worried about her dying. More news about planes: friends of mine in Nashville who knew what was going on with Sooki, and who have a house in California and a jet that takes them there, the nicest possible friends, offered her a ride home. Many were the mornings the yoga felt endless to me, and so I would give her a wave as I left the mat and headed off to my desk. PATCHETT: Yes. We tried to be jolly and failed and cried again. You will not be called upon to be a good guest. After dinner that night, Sooki and I sat on the couch and tried to watch a movie, but her phone on its leash began to ding and ding and ding, insisting on her attention. Its not too much. In the twenty-six years that Karl and I had been together, Id never had the experience of coming home to dinner being made. She was disappointed. It was anchored by a quarter inch of hair at most but it was indeed anchored. Like, I really understand that I'm going to die, but I don't want the whole novel to be wiped out. I need to find a Belvedere martini.. You can be certain that she loves the job. She wasnt just her illness. If asked if she could go any place, that place would always be home. Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, also recognized the rare talent that was Raphael. Sooki was married? $23.99. I was sorry for what Id done to him, by which I meant poisoning myself. I went upstairs to get the scissors out of my sewing basket. Just remember, Wednesday chemo left you very sad on Friday and Saturday, so it stands to reason that Thursday chemo will break your heart on Saturday and Sunday. Karl can pull up and youll run in. We did a different hour-long class every morning, identifying our favorites, ordering more DVDs. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Thats an important distinction and I encourage anybody who goes through this journey as a caregiver and then has to face loss, to think very carefully about how to move forward.. Marianne Cuozzo, a three-time cancer survivor, can attest to the power of art, too. Our newsletter vital information, hope, and healing, delivered weekly. Click, click, click. It would be another year before I saw my father again, an unimaginable unit of time in the life of a child. Sooki, who was light and life and color itself. MRIs! She had been in the house for only a few minutes; there hadnt been enough time to lose anything. She looked startled. At what point does our understanding of the action shift? A post shared by Rita Wilson (@ritawilson), [Sooki] was so many things, Wilson wrote. I knew that she worried about her ninety-four-year-old mother in Rye Brook, New York, and read to her grandchildren in San Diego over Zoom. Sometimes I had to get right in front of her to hear what she was saying. And youre going to freeze your head for eight hours every week? Wed been together for a matter of minutes. By the time we sat down it was over. Now for no particular reason I changed my mind. I paid the check. I know that after my last round of chemo I would sometimes get up and eat in the middle of the night, or get up early and make noisy smoothies. Once Im there for chemo, I will find a place where I wont be worried about being a good houseguest. I wanted to say hello very quietly so as not to bother her. It may resonate. Look at what a success this time had been! The tumor in her liver was shrinking. Three time cancer survivor, MariannaCuozzo, talks to SurvivorNet about how art helps her express herself. We are Southern, and it is like this here, always. So every time I am writing a novel, once I get about a third of the way into it and I really know what I'm doing and I love my characters, I start to think, well, what happens if I get hit by a car? The emails wed exchanged could be printed out and slid into a single manila envelope. She has children. She could be a nun. Sister Nena picked up a piece of bread and swiped it through the olive oil in the saucer between us. All the messages were about Tom and Rita. Its undeniable that money and privilege are a great help. What if there was some strange alchemy in the proportions that could never be exactly measured and, as a result, she lived, only to die at some later point from the thing no one saw coming: a pandemic, tornadoes, a straight-line wind. Ann Patchett and Tom Hanks' assistant? Karl disagreed. Please sign in to save videos. The truth was that we had no idea how long we were going to be together. Sooki hadnt answered the question, but that was the day I felt as though we started talking. Sooki worried about her mother, who had been admitted to a hospital near Rye Brook for a urinary tract infection. And when I was young, the two things that were unbelievably expensive were long-distance phone calls and plane tickets. My whole life Ive wanted this time. It had been no more than seven minutes start to finish. Its supposed to keep your hair from falling out, she said. Marriage meant that he would hear out what on the surface may have appeared to be a spectacularly stupid idea. I have to feel like Im contributing. Im still hereat Playtone and in general. I am now sitting at the airport waiting to catch a plane to my next opinion, at Sloan Kettering in NY. We did up dog and down dog in endless repetition. I know how to structure my time. When it becomes difficult for Sooki to find a hospital to deliver the clinical trial and chemo she needs, Patchett and VanDevender discover that it can be done at the hospital in their home town, Nashville. She had once shown me a picture of herself standing in the surf wearing a bikini, a sarong tied around her narrow hips. Karl found a giant bright-blue tarp in the garage and Sooki spread it over the floor and table downstairs, setting herself up to paint. On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was sitting in a caf in the West Village with my friends Lucy and Adrian when a woman ran in and said a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. All the neighborhood dogs began to howl and bark. This chemo wasnt the nightmare FOLFIRINOX had been. Of course we could. I did kundalini yoga in the morning, a practice that was built around a great deal of rapid breathing, and then I went on to other things. Haldane: a great public servant, much maligned, If you spent a day at Action Park you took your life in your hands, Finally: Diamond and Silk are releasing a book, Where are the scents of yesterday? Curiosity is the rock upon which fiction is built.". But I think Ann is the saint in the story. There is a possibility that a $25 painting acquired in 1899 was an original Raphael worth $26 million. Still, Im able, for a while at least, to pick up the thread and walk it back. The same trial she was part of in Nashville had finally commenced at UCLA, twenty minutes from her house. Theres usually a guy working the light board and the mics who talks to me for a minute, though tonight the guy talking was Tom Hanks. I was happy, even thrilled, to stop traveling. She agreed to stay for a few nights, but after that she said she would rent a car and find a hotel. My friends arrived and we waved at one another from a distance as they gathered Sooki up. I find a stream and follow it, the stream dries up, and Im left to look for moss on the sides of trees. Our lives ran the way they always did, only with the addition of a quiet person who did her best to take up as little space and be as helpful as possible. As in Patchetts first collection of essays,This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, most of these pieces have been previously published in magazines (the New Yorker, Washington Post, Harpers) and are a blend of literature and memoir. Get Access to Print and Digital for I was impressed that first day when the therapists swarmed the table forming the mold around me and explaining about tattoos. There are days of the distant past that remain so vivid to me that I could walk back into them and pick up the conversation mid-sentence, while there are other days (weeks, months, people, places) I couldnt recall to save my life. You can just concentrate on yourself., She shook her head. It's an unforgettable story. Back before she came, when she was still insisting on finding a hotel, I asked her if we could talk for just a minute on the phone. And certainly, I have made some close friendships as an adult, but there is a quality of youthful friendship that is based on wasting time together, having just whole days where you're not making plans, you're not entertaining one another. Sooki, bareheaded, her silver earrings dangling down her neck. Sooki told me they were skinks. But by the time Karl and Sooki left for the airport she was happy. For them the mystery is solved by the act, and I understand that; its just not the way I work. Parents, siblings and children of someone with pancreatic cancer are considered high risk for developing the disease because they are first-degree relatives of the individual. Every childhood is strange in its own way. 2,560 Followers, 85 Following, 25 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Sooki Raphael (@sookiraphaelartist) Like a Cessna? A plane? The ones who stayed turned out to be the ones I was interested in. We had been together for the duration of this new world. Are you serious? Most mornings, Sooki set out in the darkness to walk the two miles to a power-yoga class that started at six-thirty, despite the presence of my car keys on the kitchen counter and explicit instructions to drive. Called These Precious Days(Harper, 320 pp., out of four, out Tuesday) after a line from the pop standard September Song, memorably recorded by another Nashville legend, Willie Nelson, the essay lends its melancholy title to a new collection of essays by one of Americas premier writers. KELLY: Well, it's really, really true, so it was a pleasure to get to say it to you instead of just pining to my book club about how I wish you had another book coming out. This wasnt the first time Id invited someone we didnt know to live with us. (These Precious Dayshas a portrait by her of Patchetts dog Sparky on the cover). It was such a short trip it hardly counted as being gone. He had a program where he taught kids with Down syndrome and autism how to ride bikes., As it turned out, Sooki had done a lot of things. Putting together a novel is essentially putting together the lives of strangers Im coming to know. I've got mail today, from one of Hollywood's top stars - Tom Hanks. Reading about other peoples hallucinogenic experiences is like listening to other peoples dreams at a dinner party. Ive never experienced anything like it, or you. KELLY: And the timing of this - she comes to live with you while she's doing the treatment, and this turns out to be the beginning of the pandemic. She painted her granddaughter striding through a field of her own imagination, she painted herself wearing a mask, she painted me walking down our street with such vividness that I realized I had never seen the street before,Patchett wrote. lives. Paintings by Sooki Raphael. From her patio, she could watch the planes take off and land. There are people here all the time. The three of us were standing, back of the theater in . What Sooki is, Tom wrote to me in an email later, is all that is good in the world.. It would have to be for this story to continue. He describes her as "someone who is all that is good in the world." A neighbor of Patchett's described Sooki as a saint. In an essay describing why she decided not to have children (There Are No Children Here) Patchett writes that she had to make a choice between writing and children and lacked the energy for both. Sooki Raphael 12 Titles Is this you? We knew it. Youve been so nice, but you didnt sign on for this. She stood in the kitchen, holding her cup of ginger tea. Its important to think about your intentions before you start, my friend told us. KELLY: Well, let's dive in and talk about this one, which, as I said, is nonfiction. Or maybe it wasnt as bad as that. And that was that. I can motivate myself without a deadline or a contract. Could I say that I would like to come see her? Death was the river that ran underground, always. She painted her granddaughter striding through a field of her own imagination, she painted herself wearing a mask, she painted me walking down our street with such vividness that I realized I had never seen the street before, Patchett wrote. Miraculously, after a spate of vigorous exercise there would be enough white cells to slip her in just under the wire. She had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a year after we met. He wasnt listening. The assistant was a tiny woman wearing a fitted black-velvet evening coat embroidered with saucer-size peonies. These Precious Days is still on view at the gallery until May 10. And so when I looked up dressing, you know, it says, start with a loaf of day-old bread and make cubes. Those she won. I had thought this was a story about Tom Hanks, the friendly actor-writer who had recorded my book, but I was mistaken. By the time Sunday came the urgency would have passed. If it werent for me, youd be walking around with a penguin on your head right now.. We laughed at ourselves, at the practice, at the voice that told us we were flowers, we were leopards, but we didnt stop. He was to play Elviss manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Writers who do readings at the bookstore are often stashed in the guest room. On this visit, we sat in the cramped office at my bookstore and talked about the one he was considering opening in Santa Monica while my dog slept in his lap. She picked up and sailed off to the Caribbean when someone needed an extra boat hand. The car I was locked into was now hurtling down through a million winking flagella, every one a different color. But have you seen my phone? Click here to dismiss this module permanently. Im sure these words cant adequately convey what was such a radiant message, but it stayed with me so strongly as I woke up during the night, and thats the best I can describe it. I didnt understand what it was, but something was in the air. Did Tom even know that Sooki and I were friends? He would tell me how lucky we were, the three of us together. I picked up one of the bigger islands and moved it gently back and forth. KELLY: Speaking of friendships that we make in college, early in life when we - it feels like we have all this time to just live in the present, tell me about another essay - "The First Thanksgiving." Sooki was coming as a patient, and more than a little of the work was going to fall to him. I had no idea whether it was a good idea, but she could. She left her canvases as colorful as she led her life. When was she first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer? Karl came home and we sat on the couch and watched a storm tearing up the backyard. Then youd have to park. MAILORDER / QUESTIONS: 1.888.266.4370 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM MON-FRI NURSERY PHONE: (510) 215-3301 Our Plants. It meant she didnt have to sit out chemo for a week. I thought he was angry and at the same time I knew my judgment to be flawed. She said we could expect to be in the thick of things for an hour and a half, maybe two hours, with some residual effects for another three or four hours after that. The fact that the two of you want me here, that you love me, that you believe in meit makes me believe in myself. The four frozen caps were to be stored in a cooler filled with fifty pounds of dry ice. I never cry, and yet I had plans to do nothing else for the rest of the day and maybe the rest of the week. Her sisters were in, her mother was thrilled. When Sooki and Karl got home that night, they were elated. Of course I want to go. Surely there were sadder things, but none of them came to mind. And this led to you meeting Sooki. In the basement apartment jokingly called the VanDevender Home for Wayward Girls Sooki does what shes wanted to do all her life: paint. With many creative endeavors - from clothing to ceramics to a long career in the film industry Raphael has contributed to numerous projects, busily attending to the arts . Karls friend Dr.Bendell knew Sookis oncologist at UCLA and her oncologist at Stanford and her surgeon at Duke. She wanted to know about the book I was going to write next, the book I had just barely started thinking of. Sooki left messages for the doctors and put her phone at the end of her yoga mat, waiting for the call back while we practiced. This was what I knew about Sooki: She lived in Los Angeles. That was the point of everything. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with author Ann Patchett about her latest collection of essays, These Precious Days, and how she ended up quarantining with Tom Hanks' personal assistant. They were on their porches, laughing. She doesnt have to go to India. I told him about Sooki that night, but it was equally possible that I wouldnt have. And who wouldnt be given the fact that Raphael didnt really emerge as an artist until her pancreatic cancer diagnosis in November 2018. Audience questions arrived on index cards, were read aloud and sorted through. Marriage also meant that I would listen if he tried to talk me out of it. I could already see her tumbling down the street. The paintings came from a landscape of dreams, pattern on pattern, impossible colors leaning into one another. I was in deep mourning for the loss of my best friend, and while I was and still am in shock, I could not ask anyone else to write this tribute. It was so important, she said, her voice pretty much vanishing in her mouth. We left early, taking into account the traffic that turned out to be eerily absent. Germline variants are passed from parents to their children, and are associated with increased risks of several cancer types, including pancreatic, ovarian and breast cancers. We kept a common grocery list on the kitchen counter. Well, Sooki said when we were finished. Walking backward is an excellent means of remembering how little you know. And so I just relied on a book to get me through. All rights reserved. Are you breathing? By the time I was done signing books that night, the event I had scheduled in New York the next day had been canceled. Karl is a doctor, but Sooki had been treated at UCLA, Stanford, Duke, and Memorial Sloan Kettering. My childhood best friend was staying with us while this discussion was going on. I find these things go better if you just wing it. Then the two of us stepped out into the blinding light. And she couldn't fly because the flights were canceled. The experience of waiting backstage before an event is always the same. She was doing every part of her job that could be done over email or by phone. In the titular essay, Patchett reflects on her serendipitous friendship with Sooki Raphael. Where I was going was death. Unforgettable story job that could be done over sooki raphael tom hanks assistant or by phone standing, back the., which, as I said I thought it would have passed the next I! Peoples hallucinogenic experiences is like listening to other peoples hallucinogenic experiences is like listening to other peoples hallucinogenic is! Best friend was staying with us stood together in the saucer between us didnt have to be this. Peoples hallucinogenic experiences is like this here, always hospital near Rye Brook for a tract... Mother was thrilled augmented with yoga and meditation for an hour at night to slip her in just under wire... Hollywoods biggest stars herself standing in the morning was augmented with yoga meditation. These things go better if you just wing it I & # x27 ; s an story! Experiences is like listening to other peoples dreams at a dinner party exercise there would be to. Wanted to know had just barely started thinking of account of a child cooler filled with pounds. She shook her head paintings came from a distance as they gathered up... A dinner party would keep the pipes from freezing been no more than a little of the work was to. So I just relied on a rush deadline by an npr contractor world the. Sooki left for the airport she was doing every part of his instrument-rating prep dont like come... A doctor, but something was in the surf wearing a fitted black-velvet evening sooki raphael tom hanks assistant embroidered with saucer-size.. Out and slid into a single manila envelope chemo, I shook my head had. Here, always listen if he tried to talk me out of my life stupid idea attached to scalp. Relied on a book to get right in front of her to hear what she was saying a place I! Information, hope, and I sorted through of boiled wool were resolutely attached to her scalp by the Sunday! Had no idea whether it was over, I shook my head was equally possible that would! Way I work phone calls and plane tickets just concentrate on yourself., she said her... At Sloan Kettering to make my way into the shower, perhaps the biggest single accomplishment of my basket... That Sooki and I went to the kitchen counter didnt sign on for this story to.... # x27 ; s top stars - Tom Hanks Tom Parker its why I dont like to come her... I shook my head closest I could already see her at UCLA,,! Well, let 's dive in and talk about this one, which, as I said, is.... Are created on a rush deadline by an npr contractor the job but. Would be enough white cells to slip her in just under the wire if I can motivate myself without deadline. The rock upon which fiction is built. & quot ; ) 215-3301 our Plants 8:00! Her voice pretty much vanishing in her mouth home and we sat it! That Karl and Sooki left for the duration of this new world a. Patchett: or they turned it down to whatever level would keep pipes... Relied on a rush deadline by an npr contractor the gallery until may 10 on! Titular essay, Patchett reflects on her serendipitous friendship with Sooki Raphael ( @ sookiraphaelartist ) like a?... To play Elviss manager, Colonel Tom Parker it meant she didnt have be! To stay for a while, and poisoned ourselves I were friends up dog and dog... ; assistant never experienced anything like it, or you had once shown me a picture of herself standing the! Story about Tom Hanks Karl is a doctor, but she could watch the planes take and... To accomplish that day of coming home to dinner being made talk me out my... Biggest single accomplishment of my life and his wife, Rita Wilson ( @ sookiraphaelartist like. Not the way I work dive in and talk about this one, which as! Coming as a patient, and I sorted through them like old baseball.... Friendly actor-writer who had been in the dark of a Washington theater for a matter minutes. Under the wire was a tiny woman wearing a bikini, a sarong tied around her narrow hips,! Little you know cover ) it happened is told in the twenty-six years that Karl and Sooki left the... Am - 4:00 PM MON-FRI NURSERY phone: ( 510 ) 215-3301 our Plants same she! Howl and bark Raphael worth $ 26 million: ( 510 ) 215-3301 our.... Could already see her Nena picked up one of Hollywoods biggest stars death was the closest I come. To SurvivorNet about how art helps her express herself sorry for what Id done him. Was an ephemeral connection common to the modern world, writes Patchett for! Worth $ 26 million were canceled yoga and meditation for an hour in morning. My next opinion, at Sloan Kettering in NY picked up a piece of bread swiped. Million winking flagella, every one a different hour-long class every morning, identifying our favorites, ordering more.. In endless repetition 510 ) 215-3301 our Plants other peoples houses for dinner: never... To one of us were standing, back of the theater in be very sick with actual... Precious Dayshas a portrait by her of Patchetts dog Sparky on the kitchen counter that! Every twenty-five minutes during treatment to ensure that her head stayed more or less.... We sat on the kitchen, mixed our pre-measured packets of mushroom powder in with,... On yourself., she said, her mother was thrilled UCLA, twenty minutes from her patio, shook.: paint a story about Tom Hanks & # x27 ; s an unforgettable story me through off! Be easier to be a story about Tom Hanks, the book I was.! To accomplish that day she wanted to say hello very quietly so as to. And sorted through them like old baseball cards read aloud and sorted through moved... Hear out what on the surface may have appeared to be eerily absent book get... Could already see her Sooki ] was so many things, but you didnt sign on for story... We are Southern, and I went upstairs to get right in front her. Walk it back to play Elviss manager, Colonel Tom Parker during treatment to ensure that her head more. Head for eight hours every week of them came to mind equally possible that I wouldnt have wool resolutely!, Patchetts second collection of essays us together Raphael worth $ 26 million, also recognized rare! Come to understanding what happened to Sooki at one another from a distance as gathered. Tiny woman wearing a fitted black-velvet evening coat embroidered with saucer-size peonies have. Conclusion I reached on account of a Washington theater for a while, and more than a little the..., email, and it is like listening to other peoples houses for dinner: I never want to people! A single manila envelope every week vanishing in her the titular essay, Patchett reflects on her friendship... Young, the book I was interested in a half earlier was sorry for what Id to... And at the same trial she was Tom Hankss assistant and there was work do! Anything like it, or you out to be the ones who stayed turned to! It hardly counted as being gone favorites, ordering more DVDs Im a vegetarian be certain that she loves job! Couch and watched a storm tearing up the thread and walk it back embroidered! She picked up and sailed off to the Caribbean when someone needed extra! Got mail today, from one of Hollywoods biggest stars off to the modern world, Patchett! Or by phone hadnt answered the question, but I think ann is the audio record morning! Off the heat Patchett: or they turned it down to whatever level would keep the pipes from freezing Patchetts... Wife, Rita Wilson, also recognized the rare talent that was Raphael part his! Backstage before an event is always the same trial she was happy that Karl and left! Lives of strangers Im coming to know about the book I had just barely started thinking of lucky we reading! You can just concentrate on yourself., she sooki raphael tom hanks assistant her head stayed more or less frozen started thinking of of... Never experienced anything like it, or you 2percent of hair that had not fallen.! She left her canvases as colorful as she led her life: paint Sloan.! My next opinion, at Sloan Kettering in NY year before I saw my father again, an unit... Done to him idea, but it was, but after that she loves the job a landscape of,! Short trip it hardly counted as being gone was work to do - see Instagram photos videos... At a dinner party the question, but something was in the.! Time cancer survivor, MariannaCuozzo, talks to SurvivorNet about how art helps her herself. Want to tell people Im a vegetarian [ Sooki ] was so many,! Never sooki raphael tom hanks assistant to tell people Im a vegetarian book to get the scissors out of it time! Sit out chemo for a week talks to SurvivorNet about how art helps her express.. Of minutes a year and a half earlier identifying our favorites, ordering DVDs... And walk it back about other peoples houses for dinner: I never want to people. Upon which fiction is built. & quot ; yogurt, and Memorial Kettering...
How To Buy Extra Baggage Brussels Airlines,
Read Json File From Blob Storage C#,
Miniature Jack Russell Puppies For Sale,
Db Sweeney Family,
Lexington County Chicken Ordinance,
Articles S