Well, dear readers, the day I hoped would never come came yesterday. I’m not going to rehash stories I’ve told many, many times about how Richard Sherman and I met, how we became instant friends, which blossomed over the years into one of the closest friendships I’ve ever known, I just can’t, not right now. Here is what I posted when I got the news.
I dreaded this day, this awful day, but here it is. I don’t know how to process this. I had the hardest time when Cindy Williams passed, and now this. Certain things are unbearable – this is certainly at the top of the list. My dearest friend, the warmest, nicest, most loyal, kindest, most positive man who ever walked the planet is gone. My heart is shattered into a million pieces right now. I know him well enough to know he would not want me to be sad – that’s not who he was. I met him in 1998 or thereabouts and we became best pals instantly. He has been so much a part of my life since then, both he and Elizabeth. I could write an entire book about our friendship and maybe I will. I’m not going to go on and on about it. Anyone who knows me well knows how important he was to me. Whether it was our lunches and dinners, attending a huge number of Kritzerland shows, directing his big 90th birthday concert at the Wallis, bringing his show Levi to the stage, writing two songs with him, having him at my annual Christmas Eve Do year after year, or having him love my books, especially the Kritzer books, which he read over and over again, telling me we were the same person, all of it. He really was the one and only genuine original Richard Sherman. I am blessed to have been his friend. Not a day will go by when I don’t think of him and treasure him. And thankfully, he will live on forever and ever and ever and ever through the glorious Sherman Brothers songs – that is a legacy like no other. My heart goes out to Elizabeth, Vicky, Greg, and the entire family. We’ll celebrate him at the next Kritzerland for sure – I’d originally planned the June show to be a 96th birthday concert, just as we’d done that for his 95th, but I knew there was no way he could attend this one (he and Elizabeth did attend last year’s). But I know he’ll be there hovering over all the people who loved and adored him. I have hundreds of photos of us – here are a few I found right away, including our last lunch together a couple of months ago. I’ll go listen to Hushabye Mountain now. Here’s us at our last lunch two months ago.
Here we are when he and Elizabeth came to see 70, Girls, 70 in December.
Here we are at the ALS benefit I directed, reunited with my boyhood crush, Hayley Mills.
Well, here’s bunches more.
That last photo is my favorite. He’d been in the hospital for ten weeks – he went in two weeks after our last lunch together. I think after all that time there that maybe he just decided it was time to move on. He died peacefully in his sleep. His daughter wrote me a lovely note telling me how much he loved me as a best friend. I’m sure he’ll be feeding the birds wherever he is.
That was yesterday. Not much more to say, other than I heard from a lot of folks, had a lot of texts and telephonic calls, had some fried catfish for food, obviously could not concentrate on a movie or music, and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll putter around the house, at three I have to go to Catalina Jazz Club – I left my mic stand there, plus they have my check for the show – turns out they had it the night of the show, but no one told me and I’d left when they tried to find me to give it to me. Then I have a telephonic meeting at four-thirty that will probably last an hour or ninety minutes. The I suppose I’ll try to watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is a holiday, so I’ll just do whatever comes my way. Tuesday, I’m going to storage to try and find some stuff I need to find, and the rest of the week will be figuring out the June Kritzerland show and cast it.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, putter, go pick up my mic stand and my check, have a telephonic meeting, eat something, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, already missing my beloved Richard Sherman.