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. She wanted to know about the book I was going to write next, the book I had just barely started thinking of. Marti and I had hitchhiked through Europe together the summer we were nineteen. I had told her the make of my car, and she waved when I pulled up in front of the airport. And also, she was very low on white blood cells. Small, flat islands of boiled wool were resolutely attached to her scalp by the 2percent of hair that had not fallen out. But now shes memorialized in author Ann Patchetts latest book. On the few mornings she didnt come up at her usual time, I imagined her sick, needing something, not telling me because she didnt want to bother me. Shell die, Karl said. She was welcome. While other people were left to worry about a virus that may or may not have been coming for them, I worried about Sooki. I leave the house at 6:30 am every weekday morning to make it down to the bottom basementfloor 2Bat UCLAs Westwood Medical Center by 7:30 am. A few weeks later Hanks' publicist asks if she will fly to Washington, D.C., to interview him as part of his book tour. I had a purpose to serve. Heres how the story came about: Patchett was invited to interview Hanks while he was on a book tour. As Sparky stopped and sniffed, I offered up Sookis recurrence as a story to tell, not a problem to solve. PATCHETT: I really, really appreciate that. I could see themmy family and my friends. Surely there were sadder things, but none of them came to mind. Raphael found great beauty during a tumultuous time of her life and shared that beauty with others through her artwork. The bottom floor of the house is an apartment, separate entrance, no kitchen. So the trial was supposed to start at UCLA a couple of weeks later. Ive never seen a storm come up so fast. He leaned forward over the porch stairs. And despite the fact that cancer has essentially been her whole life, Cuozzo has recognized herself as a lot more than a diagnosis by focusing on her life as a mother and an artist. And so I just relied on a book to get me through. We had never spoken on the phone. Would you just paint us a picture of her? I was grateful for both of those things. Sooki Raphael leaves her canvas as colorful as she has led her life. Sooki was coming as a patient, and more than a little of the work was going to fall to him. We waited. And there I was, going nowhere. We lived in that good world made up of yoga and chemo, the bookstore, cooking, painting, talking over dinner. I didnt know what I would have done in her place, but I imagined that upon getting the news of recurrent pancreatic cancer I would go see my lawyer and settle up my tab with the house. How much is the Raphael worth? Maybe Niki was right about my life being different, but maybe thats because I tend to think of things in terms of story: I pick up a book and read it late into the night, and because I like the book, I wind up on a flight to D.C. He has me repeat my name, birth date and area of radiation each time before I enter the room. Im not sure I can describe it without it sounding like an extension of the mushrooms, but it had that kind of depth and clarity of message for me. I would leave again on Sunday for Virginia. When Sooki and Karl got home that night, they were elated. Look at what a success this time had been! There was no other reason for me to be going on the cancer patients journey. Going forward, the lights may as well be off. I was copied on a barrage of emails I had no business reading, reports of molecular profiling, adenocarcinoma, tumor tissue for genetic analysis. He knew. They would leave in four days. They were lucky and the fire skated past. Finally she went downstairs. Copyright 2023 SurvivorNet, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Patchett is refreshingly frank, thought-provoking and joyously American. And I want you to explain why that felt easier to write during a pandemic than fiction. And the moral of the story is that really is what I have been doing my whole life ever since. She was the magnet in the compass. Do you want to come downstairs? she asked. Mine was the sin of misunderstanding, of thinking that a clinical trial was the point of the story. Most recently, she had a solo exhibition of paintings at ROSEGALLERY called These Precious Days, just like Patchetts title essay. I said, I have access to every article of clothing I own and I couldnt pull myself together to look as good as you do going to chemo.. She liked to fly. We had been in some scrapes before. The overarching theme in many of the essays is the writing life, from the kindly advice she got as an undergraduate at Sarah Lawrence from the celebrated author Allan Gurganus to her near-religious experience reading the works of the childrens author Kate DiCamillo. The next morning, we went to the bookstore early and picked out presents for everyone in her family. Then youd have to park. Coping with the loss of a loved one to cancer is incredibly challenging, but moving forward with the lessons your loved one shared and remembering you dont have to forget them to move forward can be a great place to start. There is another guest suite on the main floor and we live on the top floor. RoseGallery is pleased to present These Precious Days, a solo exhibition of paintings by Sooki Raphael, on view from 10 April until 10 May, 2021. Now I knew several people who were using them as part of therapy. I paid the check. Then as the world was ensnared by a global pandemic, the two friends formed a pandemic pod. In a piece for Harpers Magazine called These Precious Days, Patchett told the story of their friendship and spoke of her admiration for the paintings Raphael created at her home. No empty spiritual space. 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. It was my intention to vomit, but the idea of getting past Sooki was overwhelming. She told me how lovely it had been to lay down the burden of her own vigilance. She had to pack her boxes the next day, Tuesday. The cell-phone case also served as her wallet, containing her credit cards, cash, IDs, insurance cardseverything important. They took ten vials of blood on one visit, twenty-eight vials the next. How had she known something was wrong? Dont worry about it, Tavia said. I didnt understand what it was, but something was in the air. The phone hadnt been run over, nothing in the wallet was missing. Add a Profile More Hide Episodes Title Year Update Role Assistant: Mr. Hanks Bridge of Spies (2015) Motion Picture Assistant: Tom Hanks Saving Mr. Banks (2013) Motion Picture Assistant: Mr. Hanks Cloud Atlas (2012) Motion Picture Assistant: Mr. Hanks Larry Crowne (2011) Motion Picture Assistant: Tom Hanks What happens if I fall down the stairs? All the people who love me and how hard this has been for them, the cancer. , The Amazing Rita Wilson's New Film About Choosing Life; How she beat cancer & Became A Songwriter, 'Hot, Sweaty And Itchy' Feeling Turns Out To Be Cancer For 42-Year-Old Man-- When To Seek Help, 'Miracle Baby Girl' For 29-Year-Old Who Thought Motherhood Would Not Be Possible After Late Stage Cancer Fight, 54-Year-Old's Misdiagnosed Muscles Spasms In Shoulder Turn Out To Be Pancreatic Cancer, Apple's Steve Jobs Was Trying To Accept Powerlessness & His Place In The Universe The Newly Revealed Email To Himself, 'World's Sharpest Elbowed' Comedian Vows To Do 'Fabulous' Last Tour As Ovarian Cancer Comes Back, Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), Entranced by her velvet coat and kind demeanor, opted out of his position as a cornerback. It was as if 98percent of her hair had fallen out, but somehow in the process, it had felted. Finally he stopped going in. Whats fascinating fails to translate. I get asked sometimes, who's your favorite author? She kept saying she wanted to be the one to help me for a change. Sooki told me they were skinks. The car was taking me into yellow, not a field of yellow but into the color itself. At the heart of her new collection is a 66-page story about her transformational late-in-life friendship with Sooki Raphael, an artist and the longtime assistant to actor Tom Hanks. It had been no more than seven minutes start to finish. Timeless stories from our 172-year archive handpicked to speak to the news of the day. I told him about Sooki that night, but it was equally possible that I wouldnt have. The road forks and forks again. The four frozen caps were to be stored in a cooler filled with fifty pounds of dry ice. I was leaving the next day for an event in New York. Karl and the dog went out on the front porch to read the newspaper. She looked like a tiny rock star in her shaggy pale-pink coat and sunglasses and high boots. I pulled up my eye mask. I wrote and she painted and then we made dinner. And then one night, for reasons I cannot imagine, we decided to do it all again before we went to sleep. Its undeniable that money and privilege are a great help. This is what its like to write a novel: I come up with a shred of an idea. But when? His wife, Rita Wilson, is a singer who writes with people in Nashville, where songwriting is a group activity. This was eight hours of hard labor. 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. Actress & Fitness Guru Jane Fonda, 85, Says Chemo Hit Me Hard Fighting Lymphoma Years After Breast Cancer, Rock Band Kiss Co-Founder Peter Criss, 77, Male Breast Cancer Survivor, Releases New Version Of Classic Dirty Livin, For Healthy Skin Month, Take Advice From Vanderpump Rules Star Ariana Madix, a Melanoma Survivor, and Speak Up About Concerns, You Can Overcome, Says Rebecca Crews, 56, How She and Husband Terry Crews Got Through Losing Their Home, Five Kids, And Cancer. apr. She made props for TV shows. I was trying to read her lips. I said good luck because there was nothing else to say. (It was not reassuring to know that one of the nurses at UCLA thought that Sloan Kettering was the name of the doctor Id be seeing.) She was supposed to lug this cooler with her to the hospital every week. There she was in the doorway, outlined in neon tubing. Derecho. We said our goodbyes and Adrian and I walked downtown to see what had happened. I thought some nights my back would snap. Outside the rain was dark and lashing. But I think Ann is the saint in the story. The ones who stayed turned out to be the ones I was interested in. She lugged her suitcase out to the car without my knowing it. I worried about her dying. Sooki Raphael 12 Titles Is this you? She was Tom Hankss assistant and there was work to do. It came out of nowhere, like one of those weird storms that had plagued us in the spring. Speaking of which: The essay about your friendship with Sooki Raphael [Tom Hanks' assistant, whom Patchett met while interviewing Hanks at an event in 2017 and who died in April of this year . KELLY: The title essay, "These Precious Days," is about a remarkable friendship that you formed with the personal assistant of Tom Hanks, who - long story short - you got to know. Read More. 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. My friends arrived and we waved at one another from a distance as they gathered Sooki up. No one could keep up with her. Subscribers can find additional help here. After dinner that night, Sooki and I sat on the couch and tried to watch a movie, but her phone on its leash began to ding and ding and ding, insisting on her attention. Sooki had come to our house thinking shed be staying with someone who was gone half the time and busy the other half of the time. All the messages were about Tom and Rita. On the porch, Sparky joined in. She had transferred her life into brushwork, impossible colors overlapping, the composition precariously and perfectly balanced. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The first door opened and I walked through. We talked about what we were reading and what we wanted to accomplish that day. God damn it, get inside, I said to my husband. The chemo, the clinical trial, the yoga and the vegetables, the prayers of nuns and all the time to paintwhat if it added up to something? The day I picked up Sooki from the airport in February she told me she would need to buy dry ice for Wednesdays. Sooki had two young grandchildren in San Diego and made plans to bring them to an event I was doing there, but they didnt show. But thanks to Sooki, there was enough quiet in my house, in my own mind, that I could hear the river running underground, and I wasnt afraid. I just cant stand the thought of being so disruptive to your and Karls (and Sparkys!) That was my reward. She was there and then she was gone and we wouldnt see her again until the next morning. assistant Sooki Raphael. I came back from Virginia and took Sooki to see the daffodils at the botanical garden, but we were too early. Karl is not waiting on a thank-you note, I promise. I miss our emails. Sookie paints and paints and paints. She looked at me. Sometimes Sooki would leave money on the kitchen counter, For groceries, she would say, for gas, for the books., I would shake my head. You dont think this is crazy?, I didnt say that, but I know youre trying to help Sooki.. At Harper's Magazine, author Ann Patchett relates working with Tom Hanks, through which she meets and befriends his assistant, Sooki. I cant thank her enough for how she raised me and because it was her who gave me all of that, um, spiritually, she, she just filled my heart with love and joy. It can be a character, a place, a moral quandary. It would be a nightmare.. We hugged, and I hefted her enormous suitcase into the hatchback. We call it the VanDevender Home for Wayward Girls. She went inside to see for herself. Her father was in the hospital and she had driven down from Kentucky to take care of him. Click, click, click. All the neighborhood dogs began to howl and bark. The very fact of her existence in our house kept me on track. She has opinions about my life. With each day, I felt some piece of scaffolding fall away. We talked and then we didnt. Sooki went with him every day. Register, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilsons Friend and Assistant Dies from Pancreatic Cancer; See Their Heartfelt Tribute to the Artist, Julia Louis-Dreyfus Teases Her Upcoming Movie With A Star-Studded Cast, Actress & Fitness Guru Jane Fonda, 85, Says 'Chemo Hit Me Hard'-- Fighting Lymphoma Years After Breast Cancer, Rock Band Kiss Co-Founder Peter Criss, 77, Male Breast Cancer Survivor, Releases New Version Of Classic 'Dirty Livin'', You Can Now Buy Top Gun Star's Val Kilmer's Personally Crafted Scrapbooks For Sale, His 'Most Private And Intimate Work To Date', For Healthy Skin Month, Take Advice From Ariana Madix, a Melanoma Survivor, and Speak Up About Concerns, Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), Entranced by her velvet coat and kind demeanor, In a recent post made to her official Instagram. Nell stayed for six months and we loved her. I had to turn myself away from the movie of what I thought was happening, the movie I had made for myself, so that I could see her. We love you, Sooki. He figures out problems that other people have tried and failed to solve for years. Sooki said shed heard about it, too, and knew other cancer patients whod tried it, but she was hesitant, as any right-minded adult would be hesitant about adding the X factor of fungi into an already complicated chemical mix. Sooki Raphael leaves her canvas as colorful as she has led her life. They have it, she said. Were just reading. I waited but nothing came next. . I didnt know how the story would end. I was starting to understand that what she needed might have been color rather than conversation, breath rather than words. Sookis two sisters, one in Connecticut and one in Massachusetts, could meet them there, a family reunion at the airport. She was looking to get into a clinical trial for recurrent pancreatic cancer and not finding one that had room or matched her cancer. Theyve been exposed to it?. Sooki and I stood together in the kitchen, one of us washing the vegetables, the other one chopping, making it up as we went along. I couldnt stay upright, a hangover from the last eight hours in which I had been quite memorably deboned. And who wouldnt be given the fact that Raphael didnt really emerge as an artist until her pancreatic cancer diagnosis in November 2018. Rita Wilson recently posted a tribute to her friend, Sooki Raphael, who painted throughout her treatment for pancreatic cancer. He wanted to know why I hadnt told him this. Have a wonderful day today. Audience questions arrived on index cards, were read aloud and sorted through. Copyright 2022 Topanga New Times, Published by Design Like It Matters, Inc. Login to add posts to your read later list. 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. Her paintings are full of light and life, as Sooki was., And despite not having any formal artistic training, Raphael did very well. When her white count was too low to get treatment, she would run up and down the stairs at the hospital, down from the seventh floor to the first and back up again, over and over, and then get retested. Im a vegetarian. You all did a book event. He was selected by the Tennessee Titansas the number 22 overall pick in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft. On the top floor but now shes memorialized in author Ann Patchetts latest book than minutes! Stay upright, a place, a moral quandary hospital every week in her shaggy coat... Night, for reasons I can not imagine, sooki raphael tom hanks assistant decided to do took. 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