strike that

my friend's dad.

I guess since I’ve been telling you about great people in my life I’d like to tell you about Rob Fisher. Rob Fisher was my good friend Talley’s dad, and he died this morning. And all I’ve been able to do about it so far is cry, for Talley and her brother and her mom True, of course, but also for the whole world that doesn’t get to have Rob Fisher in it anymore. Which you understand if you were lucky enough to have met him.

Rob Fisher was a sculptor. His sculptures are huge and light and beautiful, airborne mosaics of drifting suspended metal pieces. They make you suddenly conscious of all the things around you that you were overlooking before – the light and the wind and the empty spaces – and it makes sense, because that’s what Rob did too. Rob would talk about anything, anything at all, and his eyes lit up, and he leaned forward and half smiled the whole time. Because Rob Fisher knew the secret about the beauty and magic of things, and he couldn’t wait to let you in on it.

When Talley was growing up, Rob would get a sculpture commission in some place like Japan and he’d blow the whole paycheck taking the family there. He skied and drank and debated with abandon. And this passion and engagement and wonder you could get from talking to Rob for one single minute. He was just so awake.

This past year Rob and True made it out to Oregon over and over again. They shared Thanksgiving with all the landscape archies at Liz and Larry’s. They came for Rob’s sculpture installation in Springfield that Talley and Ty ended up facilitating, because Rob tried to sneak in some snow time and broke his hip. The next night we all drank together at Lucky Noodle, ten grad students and True and Rob with his crutches. They came for Talley’s thesis presentation, and sat through all our thesis presentations, offering appropriate stand-in parent comments. And they came back two weeks later to see Talley get her diploma. Which I imagine made Rob really happy.

And I feel so blessed to have known Rob Fisher, and I wish you could have known him too. It’s not often that you meet the dad of a friend and think, I could learn a lot about life from this person. I could learn a lot about how to live every day.

posted by tortaluga @ 9:22 PM