It's essays. At any point in life. Id written a childrens book and was about to go on tour. We would all proceed with our lives except that now we would be together. How other people live is pretty much all I think about. Outside the rain was dark and lashing. Everything looks so logical going backwardYes, of course, thats what we didbut going forward its something else entirely. You cant go home before Sunday., She was serious, but she was also tired, and so I could get her to agree. The power was out for four days, those rarest of days in Nashville when it was neither too hot nor too cold. Ive never seen a storm come up so fast. He leaned forward over the porch stairs. Anything thats happened to me, any adversity, any good times, any bad times, Ive always kind of stood on that rock of faith. And anyway, its my fault. Sooki, who was light and life and color itself. More breath. Backstage, she met his beguiling assistant. But our truest means of communication arrived in the form of old yoga DVDs. We had just passed Stuyvesant Park when the first tower fell. The road forks and forks again. Who is she? Thats like the building blocks of my, of my life, Farley told SurvivorNet. In bed the night before, I asked Karl, How do you think this is going?, He put down his crossword puzzle. On her last night we sat in my office after yoga and I asked her every last question I could think ofwhen did she work on the documentary about George Romero, and when did she marry Ken? She was the magnet in the compass. Shed gone to an Indian restaurant and bought bread stuffed with apricots and dates. He would tell me how lucky we were, the three of us together. College was meant to be rigorous, and so she signed up for animal behavior instead. 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. I was grateful. I went to sleep with my husband. Afterward we sat up at the hotel and talked about this new coronavirus and whether the rest of her tour would be canceled. In making the journey to Oz, she had found the strength and clarity she needed to go home again. She asked whether that was cheating and was told not to worry about it. I didnt understand what it was, but something was in the air. Heres how the story came about: Patchett was invited to interview Hanks while he was on a book tour. It was so hard for her to talk. I now knew that shed had a Whipple at Duke and twelve rounds of FOLFIRINOX followed by twenty-eight days of radiation over five and a half weeks at UCLA. I tugged at Karl and the three of us went downstairs with the dog. She told me that she had to put Sooki on a leash when she was little because she ran so much. When she gave us the painting she had done of Sparky on the back of the couch, I felt as if Matisse had painted our dog.. Sooki was married? Here is a non-fiction account from Harpers magazine, by the novelist Ann Patchett, of how she met Tom Hanks, and through him got to know his personal assistant, Sooki Raphael. How Much Is A Raphael Painting Worth? Were they awake and choosing not to come to the basement? She wanted to know what constituted being a good houseguest during a tornado. Its too weird., There is no weirdness left between us, I said. A similar medical trial would begin months earlier in Nashville. I told her, of course, that she would stay with us. I dont drink. "The press release is about to go out." I sat there and watched her read, waiting for something more, something that explained it. Writers who do readings at the bookstore are often stashed in the guest room. But months later there he was again. No events scheduled for January 16, 2023. It has to be one of the most extraordinary stories of lockdown how Tom Hanks's assistant Sooki Raphael, undergoing treatment for recurrent pancreatic cancer, came to be living in the basement of the American novelist Ann Patchett and her husband Dr Karl VanDevender. He already knew. In return, she sent me pictures shed taken of Los Angeles, a woman in an orange sari sailing past a city bus on a bicycle. My reading on this flight is a book called Radical Remission. Save me. He responded: mar. Many people loved it; some dared to hate it. It was so much more beautiful, the overlaying color of every petal, the very light pink against the blackness. Ann Patchett one night happened to read a short story by the actor Tom Hanks, surprised by its literary quality. God damn it, get inside, I said to my husband. is the author, most recently, of The Dutch House. I dont want you to feel like you have to stay downstairs, I said. Your hike looks gorgeous and loaded with spiritual component. I would save what I could save, and, along with my business partner, Karen Hayes, and a small, ferocious staff (including my sister Heather) who never backed down, I was determined to save the bookstore. I had invited someone I didnt know to live with us for an undetermined length of time, and I was leaving the day after she arrived, leaving it all to Karl. Could I meet him at the bookstore, Parnassus, in half an hour? I saw my mother and sister. Blind Boys of Alabama with Special Guest TBA. Or I would have forgotten about it, except that I got a call from Tom Hankss publicist a few weeks later, asking whether I would fly to Washington in October to interview the actor onstage as part of his book tour. Now Sooki and I sorted through them like old baseball cards. Twenty-five people died in Nashville the night of those tornadoes. But have you seen my phone? I wrote again. The essays range in subject, but often consider relationships in Patchett's personal and professional life, including with her father and stepfathers; her decision not to have children; the close friendship she develops in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic with Tom Hanks' assistant Sooki Raphael. Sparky had crawled onto my chest and gone to sleep. For what? he asked. What came out of her brush was a feast of colors and stories that she had kept in her heart for years. Every day Sooki came upstairs looking spectacularembroidered jeans, velvet tops, a different coat, a perfect scarf. Finally he stopped going in. There are so many things I understand now, she said. We call it the VanDevender Home for Wayward Girls. Get Access to Print and Digital for Her best friends lost everything in that fire. Still, she said, I cant help feeling like I should have done more with my life.. But remembering all the wonderful ways your loved one enriched your life and moving on from there can be such a powerful way to move forward. She had felt their love and heard their voices while I was hacking up snakes in some pitch-black cauldron of lava at the center of the earth. I would be in and out, other people would spend the night, which would be fine, plenty of room for everyone. I was going only for the night. It becomes the woods. The caps had to be switched out every twenty-five minutes during treatment to ensure that her head stayed more or less frozen. You always feel this way on Friday., Thats what Im here for, I said. He was watching the weather. The days went on and I could feel Sooki slipping, hounded by her own indecision. Go together. You have to remember.. 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. She met a group of sailors who had sailed around the world. "How other people live is pretty much all I think about. Have a wonderful day today. "Uncommon Type." Sooki was Tom's assistant. And the moral of the story is that really is what I have been doing my whole life ever since. My breath was roaring now, in and out, my lungs enormous bellows that would not tolerate my death. Our newsletter vital information, hope, and healing, delivered weekly. She was the New York City Bat Lady at 21. How much is the Raphael worth? The paintings came from a landscape of dreams, pattern on pattern, impossible colors leaning into one another. Join The Spectator community and view or post a comment on this article. He agreed, and then kept finding reasons to go to work anyway. My doctor paired up some words I never thought I would hear together: pancreatic cancer and youre in remission! It seems like an early declaration, but Ill take it! She painted her granddaughter striding through a field of her own imagination, she painted herself wearing a mask, she painted me walking down our street with such vividness that I realized I had never seen the street before,Patchett wrote. And so she meets Sooki Raphael, Hanks' assistant. I turned out the light and kept thinking about the leash, the marathons, the trail running, the yoga, the walking in the desert, the painting and painting and painting. Copyright 2022 NPR. We were early, they were late. I keep throwing things out. Like, I really understand that I'm going to die, but I don't want the whole novel to be wiped out. Marti and I had hitchhiked through Europe together the summer we were nineteen. Karl is not waiting on a thank-you note, I promise. I was struck by an overwhelming sense of wanting to know her, of not wanting to miss Sooki while she was here. I am doing my best to keep it pushed off to the side, but I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in November (caught it early) so Ive been dealing with surgeries and chemo. There are suddenly people everywhere. Should I have woken them up and made them come down to the basement? I had no idea whether it was a good idea, but she could. We are Southern, and it is like this here, always. I would love to stay with you for my first night or two in Nashvilleit would be wonderful to spend some time with you. Sookis a pilot! Karl said. Its not too much. All rights reserved. RELATED: For Actor Val Kilmer & Millions Fighting Cancer, Theres New Evidence Art Helps Reduce Anxiety, Theres no clock on creativity, Wilson wrote on Instagram. Like, I really understand that I'm going to die, but I don't want the whole novel to be wiped out. 17, 2019: Hey! He said that Sooki was good when they left. I didnt want to be one more person tugging at her coat, but I was. They would leave in four days. My whole life Ive wanted this time. But over time the idea drifted to the back burner. In life, time runs together in its sameness, but in fiction time is condensedone action springboards into another, greater action. Are you not sorry you did it? I felt like it took me two minutes to put that much together. My childhood best friend was staying with us while this discussion was going on. RELATED: If Youre A First Degree Relative of Someone With Pancreatic Cancer, Screening and Surveillance Could Save Your Life; Heres Why, Because the pancreas is inside the abdomen often doesnt have symptoms that would tell you that something is wrong with your pancreas, he says. I wouldnt be on the same floor of the house.. One morning Sooki had coffee with Sister Nena and me before she went to a yoga class across the street from the restaurant we went to for breakfast. Direct flights to Los Angeles had been suspended, and even if shed wanted to fly to Dallas to wait and see whether the connecting flight would be canceled (because thats what happened now), her weekly blood draws underscored the fact that she scarcely had enough white cells to qualify for chemo, much less protect her from a pandemic while on a commercial flight. We put on the music, the eye masks, covered up. She had set up her life in the basement of our house, a place we never went. Whether you loved it or hated it may depend on your feelings about celebrity culture since the benevolent presence of Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, hovers in the background. But her time as Hanks assistant brought her to a woman who would later become an invaluable friend during her cancer treatment and artistic journey. It was a shaggy dog of a story by a woman passionate about dogs, touching on a variety of subjects, including her friendship with Tom Hanks assistant Sooki Raphael; Raphaels treatment for cancer; the early days of the coronavirus pandemic; the art and craft of writing; and I kid you not psychedelic mushrooms. With our hands on our shoulders we turned left and right, left and right, endlessly. Ill send photos from San Diego. On the porch, Sparky joined in. I told him she worked for Tom Hanks, that wed struck up a little friendship over email. But I think Ann is the saint in the story. Because then, it won't just be me; it will be the entire world of people in my head. PATCHETT: Every single thing was from scratch. She said we could expect to be in the thick of things for an hour and a half, maybe two hours, with some residual effects for another three or four hours after that. She painted and slept and did her work; she had her Zoom meetings and her Zoom gatherings with friends. Id be grateful if youd pray for her, I said, because while I was uncertain about prayer in general, I believed unequivocally in the power of Sister Nenas prayers. Lets not forget the cancer, I said, and we laughed. When undergoing treatment for cancer, looking inward for inspiration can be a very cathartic journey that helps with recovery. It occurs to me that I should put that playlist on again and listen as Im writing this, but I will not. I saw Tom and Rita in Nashville two more times. The title piece in the autobiographical essay collection These Precious Days by Ann Patchett is about her unexpected friendship with Tom Hanks's personal assistant, Sooki Raphael, who ended up living with Patchett and her husband in Nashville while enrolled in a medical trial for pancreatic cancer. We saw two movies with my sister. Hanks, by way of reciprocation, agrees to How it happened is told in the title story ofThese Precious Days, Patchetts second collection of essays. This storywhich begins and beginsstarts again here. I cleaned out the freezer and the refrigerator and at every moment thought, We are so lucky. But in her post, Wilson referred to her as the one thing she was destined to be: an artist. But all Sooki did was help me. 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. Surely there were sadder things, but none of them came to mind. And it's such a funny thing. Karl has never once complained. A few more pages would send me off to sleep, so I went in search of a short story. We tried to be jolly and failed and cried again. And painting and painting. She told me that over the course of her life, each time she went back to Germany she found her fluency had mysteriously improved, as if the language had continued to work its way into her brain regardless of whether she was speaking it. This is what its like to write a novel: I come up with a shred of an idea. Everything filled in. More news about planes: friends of mine in Nashville who knew what was going on with Sooki, and who have a house in California and a jet that takes them there, the nicest possible friends, offered her a ride home. Her mother is the novelist Jeanne Ray. Not to advance your cancer treatment? We had been together for the duration of this new world. Karl said she should send him her records if she wanted to, and that he would talk to Johanna Bendell, an oncologist at the hospital where he works. There was a delicacy about her that was well-suited to baldness. . I hoped he would ask me to join them. I think about all the people who would want her to live with them. Don't have an account? Karl loved Sookis family and they all loved Karl. Karl went to talk to the pilots about the plane and Sooki and I sat in the little waiting area. She had moved in before the pandemic. When we got home from our walk, I emailed Sooki and said that if she wanted Karl to check on the possibility of a trial in Nashville she should send her medical records. Winter came without a word. Dionne Warwick came in with her son. $23.99. And this led to you meeting Sooki. This article was originally published inThe SpectatorsUK magazine. You two go and Ill have dinner ready by the time you get back. It was the practical solution, and so they left. No events scheduled for January 18, 2023. What will happen? Death, I said. She was painting. I know how to structure my time. I went upstairs to get the scissors out of my sewing basket. Im still hereat Playtone and in general. Where I was going was death. Karl was home from work when we got to the house, and he and I showed Sooki around. Karl was seventy-two. Karl spent a huge amount of time studying weather as part of his instrument-rating prep. The main character I was certain of starts to drift, and someone Id barely noticed moves in to fill the space. Our interactions stayed in the present: Do you want to go for a walk? No one will bother you there. The station happened to be next door to the airport, so everyone picked up their coolers and walked over. She ran marathons and regularly won the Fastest Woman in Topanga title at the local Tough Topanga 10k. Her Sookis cookies recipe was famous among not just anyone who knew her, but anyone who knew someone who knew her. Death was there during those long, sunny days. Sooki left for yoga just as the waitress was bringing our eggs. When it becomes difficult for Sooki to find a hospital to deliver the clinical trial and chemo she needs, Patchett and VanDevender discover that it can be done at the hospital in their home town, Nashville. And it was working for Hanks that led Raphael to Patchett who would later become an invaluable friend to Raphael during her cancer treatment and artistic journey. But by the time Karl and Sooki left for the airport she was happy. Or I should say the boundaries you think are there tend to fall away. Oh, shes darling, Sister Nena said. He claims our lives are better for all the people I bring into the house. There was my grandmother, my father. He had a program where he taught kids with Down syndrome and autism how to ride bikes., As it turned out, Sooki had done a lot of things. You okay? Sooki asked. I had put a notebook and a pen beside me on the floor before we started. We can go up and back the same day.. My friend told us we should wear eye masks and cover ourselves with blankets. The sky had turned a tenacious gray, the rain sheeting sideways. At what point does our understanding of the action shift? Still, it seemed possible I could get off the ride early by expelling the mushrooms. They told me the story later: How after they landed, when they were all standing together on the lawn outside the small airport, a police officer came and told them they had to disperse. But now shes memorialized in author Ann Patchetts latest book. I miss our emails. I tried to imagine chemo while living in a hotel. KELLY: (Laughter). And the only time I ever feel paranoid about death is when I'm in the middle of a novel because I don't want the novel to die. She hadnt seen it happen. The water in the creek a block away skimmed the bottom of the footbridge. We talked about what we were reading and what we wanted to accomplish that day. Was it like they said it would be, life-changing? Tom Hanks was so completely absent from our conversations that I once asked her if he knew where she was. Im doing the best I can to feel beautiful in this new body.. It was late and Id just finished the novel Id been reading. What was the line of childrens clothing called? That night I tried to explain it to Karl. We breathed deeply and flexed our spines. There is Tom Hanks's deceased assistant, Sooki Raphael, protagonist of the title essay that went viral a few months ago when it was published by Harper's, who had gone to Nashville for her . I went to the grocery store and piled up the cart. Sooki had had a toucan in college. I had missed my chance. He would bring us with his own two small girls, and the four of us would sit in the coils of snaking power cords backstage and fall asleep in dressing rooms, in this very dressing room. I knew there was a part of her that believed that maybe what Nashville had to offer in terms of fighting cancer was happening in our house, that she was improving because she was with us. Almost from the moment we finished that first practice, she identified it as part of her recovery, the thing she needed to stay alive. Astonishing to come across such a friendship at this point in life. In the twenty-six years that Karl and I had been together, Id never had the experience of coming home to dinner being made. This one is good for your liver. This will help all your internal organs. You are beautiful. But I think Ann is the saint in the story. This is a great read. And if you decide you want to stay, well, you dont have to give that up either., Sooki the Tireless, Sooki the Indefatigable, looked as if she was about to split apart. There was a bottle of water, a blue glass by the sink. She had brought a squeaky toy for Sparky. Sookis impending departure touched a memory I made a point of not revisiting: My sister and I flew from Tennessee to Los Angeles for one week every summer to see our father, and on the morning of the day we were going back to Tennessee I would start to cry. Having lost his mom to breast cancer in 2018, he knew he wanted to be extra careful during the pandemic. It was a shaggy dog of a story by a woman passionate about dogs, touching on a variety of subjects, including her friendship with Tom Hanks' assistant Sooki Raphael; Raphael's treatment. He was in Nashville. What became of them? Shed only been here for a couple of hours. She brought her paintings upstairs to show us: a person who was too shy to say good night most nights was happy for us to see her work. And so when I looked up dressing, you know, it says, start with a loaf of day-old bread and make cubes. You explain it in the opening chapter. She had to pack her boxes the next day, Tuesday. We went back and forth. 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