I have come to Nice to pay tribute to the creative and adventurous life of my brother Chris, who died too young in October, 2022 at the age of 66. Chris was an accomplished photographer, musician, songwriter, poet, outdoor sportsman and world traveler - many interests that we avidly shared. I had a special kinship with my youngest brother and was denied the chance to visit him during the last year of his life and to say goodbye, subsequently my grief has been profound and debilitating. To heal, I decided to revisit a setting where Chris and I met up in 2014 to share an adventure. I hope to create some sort of goodbye ritual while I'm here.
Back then, Chris had recently recovered from treatment for Hepatitis C, and feeling healthy again, he decided to fulfill a long cherished dream of riding a motorcycle through the Alps. I was living in Florence, Italy at the time, where he stopped in to visit me for a few days before touring through northern Italy, Switzerland and France.
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| Chris arriving at my apartment in Florence |
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| Happy times with my little bro. |
At the end of his ride, we met up in Nice and spent a short time sharing our travel stories before he headed home. It was so glorious to finally share my European life with a family member, and Nice seems the perfect place to carry on Chris's penchant for creativity and adventure.
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| Lunch with Chris in Place Garibaldi, Nice. |
I plan to spend my time here doing the things we both enjoyed most - having adventures, being creative and recording our experiences to share with others. In this way, I can best keep him present in heart and mind.
1 comment:
Marybeth, So glad you are getting to do this! Touched with a bit of envy. Squeeze everything you can from it! Dan & Lynn
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