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Entry tags:
- disability,
- grief,
- life,
- rip
2023 continues as a serial offender...
Ady Barkan has now also died. Not completely unexpected, obviously, but it's always sudden.
He beat the odds a bunch of times. I knew him a little from some healthcare activism and because he took the time to engage with his social media followers. he seemed to be funny and devoted to his family and that he still enjoyed life a lot even though it handed him a wallop so big that I, no stranger to feeling walloped, couldn't fathom it.
Most people with disabilities like Ady's don't get to...well, I don't mean to say "pick up where they left off," because Ady was clearly "Going Places Guy"(Left-wing version) before all of that happened, clerking for important judges, founding organizations and all that kind of stuff. but he got to stay in the mix better than most and have money to pay for an extensive network of caregiving that most of us don't have.(One of my tributes will be making this less true...I would say *not true at all* but shit, I'm already fifty myself and it seems like the lesson being pounded in here is "You Too Will Die," so, clearly, I'm leaving some extra credit on the fucking table, here.)
he lived in one of my favorite cities, and clearly met his "lobster" in college that stuck with him and built a family and a documentary with him. (Sometimes, honestly, I was a bit envious...though I wouldn't want to trade away what physical ability I could lay claim to, I suppose.)ETA: A link to the obituary:
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/02/1210117475/ady-barkan-als-activist-obituary
He beat the odds a bunch of times. I knew him a little from some healthcare activism and because he took the time to engage with his social media followers. he seemed to be funny and devoted to his family and that he still enjoyed life a lot even though it handed him a wallop so big that I, no stranger to feeling walloped, couldn't fathom it.
Most people with disabilities like Ady's don't get to...well, I don't mean to say "pick up where they left off," because Ady was clearly "Going Places Guy"(Left-wing version) before all of that happened, clerking for important judges, founding organizations and all that kind of stuff. but he got to stay in the mix better than most and have money to pay for an extensive network of caregiving that most of us don't have.(One of my tributes will be making this less true...I would say *not true at all* but shit, I'm already fifty myself and it seems like the lesson being pounded in here is "You Too Will Die," so, clearly, I'm leaving some extra credit on the fucking table, here.)
he lived in one of my favorite cities, and clearly met his "lobster" in college that stuck with him and built a family and a documentary with him. (Sometimes, honestly, I was a bit envious...though I wouldn't want to trade away what physical ability I could lay claim to, I suppose.)ETA: A link to the obituary:
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/02/1210117475/ady-barkan-als-activist-obituary