Two Years On

Two years ago this evening Mark Stroock II died.

We wrote of his passing here, here and here. Here's his obit. Some of those posts we planned in advance.

We don't know that we've ever 'dealt' with his death. We don't know how we would deal with it. Our mother died of lung cancer that November. So for the last two years all we've really done is worried about our father. Who knows how that's working out?

A successful man, a powerful man, a domineering man from whom we got at least half or personality. He could be difficult to deal with, an overreaching presence for our first 44 years and even now. We had wondered what it would be like without him in our life. He was there, and now he is just not-there. That's it.

Here we are at the Algonquin in Manhattan. His last Christmas. I think he knew it, too: