Dear TheatreEddys Readers:
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| Edwin Brent Jones, 1958-2016 |
I will not be reviewing any more plays through the rest of 2016 in order to mourn the loss of my dear husband, Edwin (Ed) Brent Jones, who died Sunday, November 20, 2016, after a brave, hard-fought, seven-year battle with colorectal cancer. In Jewish tradition, I will take the next month to pause normal activity and to concentrate on my loss of my lover, best friend, and life companion.
But come 2017, I will be ready to go full-steam ahead. And I will still be posting the “2016 Eddys” for Top Ten Plays and Musicals (but just minus anything opening Nov. 20-December 31).
Here is the announcement I published to friends and family this past Monday:
Dear Friends:
With incredibly sad heart and near-broken spirit, I am writing to tell you that Ed’s seven year battle is over. He died quickly and without pain in the middle of Saturday night — first patting the space next to him for me to come sit down beside him, then grabbing my hand, and then keeling forward and passing from the life he lived so fully.
He lived the ten weeks he was on hospice like he did the two-and-a-half years he was on Stage 4 chemotherapy treatments like he did the seven years, one week after his traumatic operation for colorectal cancer — to the fullest. In these past ten weeks of at-home hospice, we had nine wonderful Shabbat dinners on Friday nights with our six kids, many of their friends, and some of our closest, nearby friends. Ed went, usually in wheel chair and with portable oxygen tank, to twenty-four plays and three full operas while on hospice care — something our hospice medical personnel and their colleagues had never before seen. And best yet, he and I got to spend those final weeks just being close to each other as more and more, every small task (like swallowing a bite of pureed food) was a major effort that my hero did with no complaint but lots of effort.
Because this is Thanksgiving week in the U.S., we are modifying how normally we might have scheduled Ed’s service and burial. Tomorrow, November 22, we will hold a private, graveside service to follow the Jewish tradition of placing his body at its resting spot within a couple days of his dying. On Sunday, December 4, 6:30 p.m., we will hold a memorial service at Congregation Beth Am, 26790 Arastradero Road, Los Altos Hills; and I hope that all of you who are local will be able to attend. Our beloved Rabbi Janet Marder, who married us twice (once in 2005, strictly religious, and then in 2008, legally) will officiate. There will be a social gathering at the synagogue following the service.
Ed will live forever on in my life and in many of yours in the stories we tell, the laughter we share of memories, and the courage he had to relish every moment of life G-d granted him. May those memories comfort us all now and in the days, months, and years to come.
Hugs to and from all of you,
Eddie
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