Serious and Grim News: Brett

[dwenius]

My very dear friend Brett Summers is currently in Columbia University Hospital in Missouri, and his condition is extremely grave. He has been struggling with alcoholism for some time and developed Hepatitis over the past year. Several stints of rehab were only marginally successful and about a month ago he fell into a coma in his house. He has been in the hospital since then with acute liver and kidney failure. His family and doctors are unsure whether he will live a week, or a month,
or —

I'm flying out tomorrow and hope that he will be out from sedation long enough to know that I am there. If not, I'll play him the Orb, and read to him from Italo Calvino, and leave him the get well cards that Calvin and Rose made, and otherwise keep him company through midday Thursday.

Please send your love and good thoughts for him. Anything you post here, I will do my best to relay. I'll either read it aloud to him or print your words and leave them by his bedside, or both.

Comments

Brett is cool/we love Brett because....

[futurity.livejournal.com]

Brett,

I am sorry that I have not known how to be with you. I think of you often. Especially an idea you introduced me: changing your life course is like steering a freight train. I take this to mean change is a momentous task, only done very gradually.

We both have been trying to steer our freight trains. I hope we can both forgive ourselves for not being able to make impossible hard turns.

I love and accept you for who you are now.

I love you,
Sarah Miller

P.S. Here is the documentation of your friends' love for you circa 2001.


Your friends said this:

Brett is cool/we love Brett because....

He will not settle when it comes to selecting dessert.
He can sport pink bunny ears and rainbow-colored wigs like nobody's business.
He never judges me; he's just my friend.
His dental hygiene is impeccable and he's always up for a tooth-brushing run.
He is irresistible when he grins from ear to ear.

His rabbit hat with ear cocked to the side makes me giggle like a maniac.
He always says things to make you feel better...even when he's trying to be evil.
He likes good, good food.
His laugh is infectious.

He spins GREAT tunes.
He shares. Your pancakes, his, whatever!
He often looks like he could be normal, but underneath it all he's wonderfully freaky.
He's got a one-of-a-kind sense of humor and a mind to match.
He's an able co-conspirator!

He challenges and broadens my view of the world.
He has impeccable and unique taste.
He has the best carpet on which to roll.
His pants are the bomb.
He has hidden funkiness. (Aw yeah...check me out!!)
I know he is looking out for me.
He brings wonderful people together.

He's creative.
He almost never steals from little old ladies.
He's supercalifragilisticexpialadocious.
He makes a mean coffee.
In a police line up, you probably wouldn't say he did it.

He has taught me that being student doesn't involve being in school.
He's very silly.
He's very smart and very weird.
He's particular about his friends and he picked me!
He is very good at giving compliments.

He eats well.
He's always considerate.
He's wonderfully silly.
He makes music because it makes him happy.
His home is a sanctuary.
He has lots of knowledge and ideas.
He thinks well.
Rocks are fun to climb.
He encourages and strengthens me.
He smells like Brett.
He communicates well.
Bread, bananas, and coffee really are the staples of life.
His head is fun to rub.

Jack, Sarah, Corinna, 2 N Jenn, Karen, and Chim Chim