Jer-Bear

Our good friend, Jeremy Tow passed away last night.

Oh, I miss him so.

I weep when I think of his loving family trying to orient their lives without him today.

His wife Anita, his daughter Emma and his young son Sebastian are in Kamloops with Jeremy's parents Jerry and Leah and Anita's 93 year old Doris lives near by.

Jeremy was almost 47.

He was a brilliant thinker, performer, singer and rising director in Canadian theatre.

Jeremy grew up in Alabama and Pennsylvania and his extended family now lives in North Carolina, but the last 15 years he has made a large, close-knit family of Canadian Theatre artists.

Jeremy is the reason Dave and I are in Canada today.

Twelve years ago, as we were finishing grad school, Jeremy emailed us from Chemainus BC. He had got wind of us through my Trinity prof.: Ron Reed and was looking for theatre interns to come to Vancouver Island.

We forged a quick and intense friendship that year with Jeremy and his wife Anita. We stayed in Chemainus eight years before being wooed away to Rosebud. We ate together, sang together, acted in Macbeth together, worked on many great shows together, and our kids played together.

I love Jeremy.

I pray for Anita and family. Especially young Sebastian, Donovan's best friend.

I'm so sad.

But I'm grateful the 24 hour care Anita and Jerry were giving Jeremy in his last days has come to completion.

I know they are so grateful for every moment.

Jeremy died of a brain tumor that gradually shut down his whole system.

I don't know why.