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 We are in the Season of Pisces   

I have many Pisces friends born in March, or end of February. And tonight, as we are swimming again in an Atmospheric River, I am inviting them into my River of Memories, my beautiful “fish” friends & colleagues from old and new times, and many places – the way they swam, and are still swimming, into and through my life…

 

Jutta Epperlein, enamel 

 

Among them is Brandyn, one of the protagonists of my film Finding the Gold Within, released in 2014. He is now a lawyer, already owning his first house, and he lost his mother Shirley last August. For the past twelve years – since Spring 2011 – I have witnessed Brandyn grow, we became friends, and we are still in communication. He turned 30 on March 1. The week leading up to his birthday was the saddest he’s ever been, he confessed. Not having his mom for this milestone. Yesterday he told me that every year at 6:58 am she’d sing him happy birthday… This pierced me, it says so much about who Brandyn’s mother was. He was her baby son. Over the course of four years of making the film, I was lucky to meet Shirley many times, conversing with her at events, filming her several times in conversations with Brandyn. Then again at the film’s Ohio premiere in Cleveland and Akron. She was strikingly beautiful inside-out, unusual, fierce and spirited. Her unique spirit lives on in her big and wide family, children, and grandchildren, and in the many people whose lives she unforgettably touched. And also, in the moving and tender scenes of her and Brandyn – mother and son together – in Finding the Gold Within. 

 

Brandyn being awarded for excellence just recently by the University of Akron 

 

Tonight, the winds are gusting hard, the rain pouring fast, pounding roof and windows, and my drains in the back get cluttered with oak leaves washed down from above, no matter how much I sweep, collect, prepare. The earth fully saturated now makes for ferocious waterfalls springing down the terraces and steps in the garden. Every few hours I check the inevitable flooding on the back patio, ready to clean out the drains. At night with my flashlight, getting wet in a storm is exciting. Tonight, I have not yet lost power, but the candles are lit and ready. The front door is rattling, my chimes are clanging, as if announcing my living and dead, young and old friends – eager and ready to enter... and dance with me...

Comments

  1. Ken SissonMarch 13, 2023 at 7:59 PM

    Karina, Brandyn for me was one of the standout characters in your beautifully made film. Your interviews and editing etched vivid portraits of each person - the founders of Alchemy, Inc., the young men involved and the trials each went through - and Brandyn and his mother were particularly memorable. How bittersweet to learn that he continues to thrive in his career while going through the heartache of losing his loving and supportive mom. He will carry her within him, as we all must carry those whom we've lost. They all indeed dance with us.

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