They take magic mushrooms together (a good experience for Sooki, dreadful for Ann). She apologized for her late response, saying that shed had a medical procedure and hadnt been in the office. I had put a notebook and a pen beside me on the floor before we started. Why couldnt she see that? Heres a universal truth: people are interested in helping Tom Hanks. My breath was roaring now, in and out, my lungs enormous bellows that would not tolerate my death. Rene Fleming spent two years in Germany studying voice while she was in her twenties. Surely there were sadder things, but none of them came to mind. There were no words because it wasnt about words. Please sign in to save videos. Happy to help. If asked if she could go any place, that place would always be home. When I asked her how she was feeling, she might admit to being a little tired or having a bit of a stomachache, nothing more than that. Karl had gone back to work by this point, but he canceled his afternoon appointments to drive us to the hangar where my friends kept their plane. For a time, the mother in this novel went to India to work for Mother Teresa. How other people live is pretty much all I think about. Were they awake and choosing not to come to the basement? She wanted to know what constituted being a good houseguest during a tornado. Everything was planned so far in advance and my spring was packed with speaking engagements. People were sitting in their cars, in their driveways, charging their phones. There was no hesitation on the canvases, no timidity. For a while she filled in for a friend and was the assistant to a film director, and then another friend introduced her to Tom, who was looking for someone. My intention was to help Sooki. Sooki Raphael leaves her canvas as colorful as she has led her life. A similar medical trial would begin months earlier in Nashville. Many people loved it; some dared to hate it. Everything looks so logical going backwardYes, of course, thats what we didbut going forward its something else entirely. I think this is just the way I am, she said. She was supposed to lug this cooler with her to the hospital every week. They were on their porches, laughing. Get Access to Print and Digital for I went by myself. 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. It's an unforgettable story. How do you fly from Nashville to New York in a single-engine plane for a two-hour visit? No events scheduled for January 18, 2023. You think youre getting chemo three Wednesdays a month but really its a test to measure the effectiveness of kundalini yoga and kohlrabi. I had signed up for a farm-share box, and every week we were overwhelmed with pounds of mysterious vegetables. It had been no more than seven minutes start to finish. . She was teaching at Bennington, in Vermont, and this was the first day of classes. I would be gone for the night, and once I got back my friend Emma Straub was coming to visit. Did my character want to be a nun? Ill send photos from San Diego. She was indefatigably pleasant and warm while maintaining her distance. There were pictures of her at twenty-two, beautiful and dark-eyed, standing on somebodys desk in little canvas tennis shoes, her gloved hands holding a bat and a net. Blind Boys of Alabama with Special Guest TBA. I really could call once, and I wanted to call her after dinner. We lit the gas stove with matches and made dinner. You should have planned for the financial fallout of having pancreatic cancer twice?. Sooki, bareheaded, her silver earrings dangling down her neck. It took a while to get the mushrooms. She had made up her mind that it was going to be okay. It has been an exercise in creative storytelling to try to think up more and more reasons why the number might rise while the scans (CTs! The very fact of her existence in our house kept me on track. But for you, there was also a vapor that would come in and fill in any gap that was left in the process, and I realized, Oh, this is what is special here and so essentially Ann. There was a completeness. There had been a meeting of some sort. Sparky had crawled onto my chest and gone to sleep. I wouldnt be on the same floor of the house.. How do you get back on the plane to come home? So it really was what they said, a definitive spiritual experience? Shed seen people. These precious days Ill spend with you, I sang in my head. They clearly didnt understand she intended to walk, though knowing Sooki, she probably could have carried it. I live fourteen minutes from the airport and five minutes from the hospital. Hey, how are you? I was already years ahead of myself, thinking of all the good Tom Hanks could do for independent bookstores. assistant (as Susan 'Sooki' Raphael, Mr. Hanks) 2012 Game Change assistant (Mr. Hanks) TV Movie 2012 Larry Crowne assistant (Mr. Hanks) 2011 Big Love assistant: Tom Hanks assistant: Mr. Hanks TV Series 2006-2011 48 episodes The Pacific assistant: Mr. Hanks (Mr. Hanks) TV Mini Series 2010 7 episodes Where the Wild Things Are assistant (Tom Hanks) Register, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilsons Friend and Assistant Dies from Pancreatic Cancer; See Their Heartfelt Tribute to the Artist, Julia Louis-Dreyfus Teases Her Upcoming Movie With A Star-Studded Cast, Actress & Fitness Guru Jane Fonda, 85, Says 'Chemo Hit Me Hard'-- Fighting Lymphoma Years After Breast Cancer, Rock Band Kiss Co-Founder Peter Criss, 77, Male Breast Cancer Survivor, Releases New Version Of Classic 'Dirty Livin'', You Can Now Buy Top Gun Star's Val Kilmer's Personally Crafted Scrapbooks For Sale, His 'Most Private And Intimate Work To Date', For Healthy Skin Month, Take Advice From Ariana Madix, a Melanoma Survivor, and Speak Up About Concerns, Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), Entranced by her velvet coat and kind demeanor, In a recent post made to her official Instagram. Its HARD. Tom and I are waiting to go on. What became of them? You cant go home, and we dont want you to go home.. We were about to go on. And she couldn't fly because the flights were canceled. I could have forgotten Sooki altogether in that moment, because even though I followed her story with interest, it was one of many stories. The months shed lost not being in chemo while they struggled to locate the new tumor had put her perilously behind. I couldnt muster whatever it would have taken to follow her, but I could hear the music fine from where I was, Greckis Symphony No.3, Arvo Prt, pieces I had loved and would love no more. On the first Sunday in May, in the late afternoon, a storm kicked up, not expected but not a surprise either. My official badge-carrying title at the New York City Department of Healths Bureau of Animal Affairs was public-health sanitarian. The badge would have allowed me to inspect and close down pet stores if I wasnt too busy catching bats. Painting fell into the category of what she meant to get back to as soon as there was time, but there wasnt timethere was work, marriage, and children. I didnt need to hear about the first opinion to know what that meant. Heres how the story came about: Patchett was invited to interview Hanks while he was on a book tour. She produced a film about her fathers work teaching children with special needs. We danced. 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 through a multiplicity of avenues. It looks like Ill have chemo and maybe a clinical trial ahead. I wasnt looking for permission, but it was a matter of mutual respect. The actor who starred in the romantic movie You've Got Mail sat down and wrote me a letter in his California office in Santa Monica. "[Sooki] was so many things," Wilson wrote. No doubt if Tom Hanks and Ann Patchett believe their friend to possess such wonderful qualities, she probably is a saint. It turned out to be more or less the truth. A forest sprung up in the middle of the street. I hoped he would ask me to join them. The power was out for four days, those rarest of days in Nashville when it was neither too hot nor too cold. When does the story start and when does it end? That night there was still no power, and so we lit candles. I could already see her tumbling down the street. I just would worry too much about being a bad friend. She traveled the world as the personal assistant to one of Hollywoods biggest stars. Then youd have to park. Gingerly we picked our way forward. Sooki Raphael, Mesa Tree, Topanga, from 'Vivid Series' 16 x 20 inches. He holds a kind of medical currency, saved then spent, and when needed, he can marshal all necessary parties into immediate action, bringing them together so fast that whatever needs to happen can happen yesterday. I didnt know how old she was, I couldnt remember her face, but there have been few moments in my life when I have felt so certain: I was supposed to help. Dionne Warwick came in with her son. By the time individuals walk into the clinic with symptoms like jaundice, weight loss, back pain or diabetes, its often very late in the stage of the disease., RELATED: Increased Thirst and Dark Urine: Researchers Reveal Two New Signs of Pancreatic Cancer As Cases Increase Over Last 18 Years, Detecting Pancreatic Cancer Early Is Crucial. I didnt see how it could hurt to ask. Unlike so many other small businesses, we had the means to pivot. "The press release is about to go out." I sat there and watched her read, waiting for something more, something that explained it. It was so hard for her to talk. We breathed deeply and flexed our spines. Other doctors are quick to do him favors because hes done so many for them. I worked at the Bronx Zoo during school and then I did the whole bat thing. One of them was shirtless and had a colorful parrot on his shoulder. This storywhich begins and beginsstarts again here. Niki works at the bookstore. Sometimes I had to get right in front of her to hear what she was saying. I dont want you to feel like you have to stay downstairs, I said. I met an old friend from school who lived up in Harlem and she drove me out. Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process. I find a stream and follow it, the stream dries up, and Im left to look for moss on the sides of trees. By the time we sat down it was over. I was impressed that first day when the therapists swarmed the table forming the mold around me and explaining about tattoos. We have come to the point in this story when time changes. We talked about the nightmare of health insuranceand how the percentage of treatment costs she and Ken had to pay out of pocket had wiped out their retirement, had wiped out everything. is an American film and television production company established in 1998 by actor Tom Hanks and . MRIs! It was late and Id just finished the novel Id been reading. We shined them into the beds of purple iris that stood tall and straight, untouched. She even dedicated the front cover of her new book to Raphaels lovely painting of her dog. Entranced by her velvet coat and kind demeanor, Patchett knew she wanted to be friends with Raphael. I told her I would pick her up at the airport. As the number spiked this week at 1700 U/L, I ran out of excuses, and my PET scan on Wednesday showed a return of the cancer to my liver. feb. 14, 2020: PSJust to be clear, I ran all this by Karl first, who said, I favor having her here. (Very Karl.). The title essay focuses on Patchett's friendship with Sooki Raphael, Tom Hanks' personal assistant, who spent the early months of quarantine in Patchett's Nashville home while receiving. Death, I said. Now I look like an improvised elementary school art project, and in addition to owning my permanent tattoos, I have to nurture my three little stickers and hand-drawn sharpie marks so they last six weeks. What a good idea. It must have fallen off my shoulder when I got in the car. Sooki was a tiny thing, with thick brown hair and olive skin. We did up dog and down dog in endless repetition. Backstage, she met his beguiling assistant. No doubt if Tom Hanks and Ann Patchett believe their friend to possess such wonderful qualities, she probably is a saint. Pay The producer of the audiobook sent me an article about Sooki from a 1978 issue of New York magazine. And which, despite several cringe-worthy passages, it is a moving and memorable account of a brief but incandescent friendship. I didnt want to get stuck in Auckland, but if flights were canceled and I was stranded in Tulsa, Karl could always come and get me. Never want to see this again? Okay, he said. Should I have woken them up and made them come down to the basement? She agreed to stay for a few nights, but after that she said she would rent a car and find a hotel. In the press release for the exhibition, ROSEGALLERY said her works used her colorful palette as an expression of a renewal of spirit and life as she healed alongside the scorched landscape of the Malibu and Topanga hills.. Shell die, Karl said. Hows the painting going? He was watching the weather. By the time Sunday came the urgency would have passed. Its a wonderful thing to be able to go back to something thats a couple of years old, see the flaws in the fullness of time, and then have the chance to make corrections and polish it up or in some cases, throw the whole thing out and write a better version., A second theme that emerges is the central role women have played in her life, from her sister, mother and grandmother to the nuns who presided over her K-12 education; the largely female staff of her Nashville bookstore, Parnassus Books; and classmates in college and grad school, including the late poet Lucy Grealy, whom she befriended at the Iowa Writers Workshop and later memorialized in Truth and Beauty., 'Reclamation':A Black descendent of Thomas Jefferson brings her ancestors out of the shadows, Not to say she gives short shrift to men. The cherry blossoms hung on forever. She was thrilled to get the chance to work. There was an abstract image, and it was clearly younot in a physical way, but as a soul. She wasnt about to tell me she looked good, but it was clear what I was talking about. I saw her as an artist. Sooki was the kind of person who could do anything, and did just about everything. I was starting to understand that what she needed might have been color rather than conversation, breath rather than words. It was such a short trip it hardly counted as being gone. She learned to solo an airplane before she learned to drive. Sooki Raphael is a TH Assistant at Playtone based in Universal City, California. Karl and Sooki came in the back door together in the middle of a conversation. It turns out that the trial that they were running at the hospital where he worked was exactly the trial she needed. This is a great read. The risk was too high. Well, over the next few minutes, we're going to revisit the moment I did admit that there is one author whose books I am guaranteed to gobble up, who I will read every time - Ann Patchett. Tell me how you know her again? he asked. I cant thank her enough for how she raised me and because it was her who gave me all of that, um, spiritually, she, she just filled my heart with love and joy. I had met Sooki, after all. It came out of nowhere, like one of those weird storms that had plagued us in the spring. I feel great. Before I can start writing a novel, I have to know how it ends. He wanted to know whether I liked owning a bookstore. Wait and see. I was so afraid Id killed you.. They knocked one another down like dominoes. Are you breathing? I had been afraid of how the story would end. In life, time runs together in its sameness, but in fiction time is condensedone action springboards into another, greater action. I told him she worked for Tom Hanks, that wed struck up a little friendship over email. She was Tom Hanks's assistant and there was work to do. Catalpa flowers littered the sidewalk, though I hadnt realized the catalpa trees were in bloom. The water in the creek a block away skimmed the bottom of the footbridge. You can live here for the rest of your life, I said, and I meant it. It's about Patchett's unexpected friendship with Sooki Raphael, Tom Hanks' personal assistant, which developed when Raphael underwent chemo treatment while living at Patchett's house in Nashville at the start of the pandemic. People are not characters, no matter how often we tell them they are; conversations are not dialogue; and the actions of our days dont add up to a plot. It seemed to be key to the way humans were shaped, and I was aware that this was going on for others around you. After her first round of cancer, while she recovered from the Whipple and endured the FOLFIRINOX, she started to paint like someone who had never stopped. I can write an entire novel without showing a page of it to anyone. The car I was locked into was now hurtling down through a million winking flagella, every one a different color. I had interviews scheduled all day on Tuesday, Sooki had chemo on Wednesday, and my friends were leaving for California on Thursday. Like a Cessna? Sooki, the middle daughter. She hadnt seen it happen. Hows the painting coming? I would ask. She was right here, Karl said. A year and a half had passed since I had picked up his book in my office, and this was where it had taken me: Tom Hanks was willing to read The Dutch House. Shed fallen down some stairs outside of church the night before and twisted her foot and now that foot was swollen and sore. This was eight hours of hard labor. We wrote about painting because she painted. Her kids were in school by then. Sooki sheltered-in-place with Patchett and her husband first coming to stay . Would you just paint us a picture of her? I had to listen to what she was telling me. You will love her. Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease that is difficult to detect because symptoms including jaundice and weight loss typically present at a later stage in the cancers development. feb. 14, 2020: Oh, Ann. (I say this as someone who is spending my days trying to write about our friendship and what happened here. She was to stay in the trial, three Wednesdays on, one Wednesday off, until the regime was no longer effective or, to put it another way, until she died. 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. In the twenty-six years that Karl and I had been together, Id never had the experience of coming home to dinner being made. Three blue tattoos on the same plane as my prominent abdominal scar, it would hardly matter. Raphael turned to art during a tumultuous time in her life and created works that will continue to be enjoyed long after her passing. Plenty of nuns were married before., You never know. Then she looked at me, her face suddenly brightened by a plot twist. Hanks, by way of reciprocation, agrees to do the audio recording of Patchetts eighth novel, The Dutch House, and a sporadic email exchange between Patchett and Sooki develops into a friendship. You dont think this is crazy?, I didnt say that, but I know youre trying to help Sooki.. Daughter, husband, sister, friendnone of the people scheduled to visit her could come now that the world was on lockdown. She was painting. I tugged at Karl and the three of us went downstairs with the dog. A test to measure the effectiveness of kundalini yoga and kohlrabi a farm-share box, and so lit! Speaking engagements and memorable account of a brief but incandescent friendship sometimes had., my lungs enormous bellows that would not tolerate my death that would not tolerate my.. 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