Yesterday marked 16 months without Patrick. I’ve been in a pretty good place emotionally but at the same time I still miss him. I love that I can hear his voice anytime I want on videos. I was watching more videos and wanted to share a few more that were meaningful. MTA is a standard Bluegrass song that he’s played for years. I love his corny joke at the beginning and I love his singing. I sang in choir for years so I can be a little critical and early on I didn’t exactly enjoy his voice (I know that’s awful to say). After years of practice he had a really nice voice. Abdul has a great voice too so he took the lead on a lot of songs but Patrick is singing this one. 🙂 MTA
I also realized that there was another song that really showed his improved banjo skills so I wanted to share that one too. This was always played right after Peace, Love and Understanding. I think you can tell how happy he was to play it too. Little Sister
I can’t remember if I’ve already shared this story, if so, I apologize. My sister and brother-in-law met Abdul at work and they became great friends with he and his wife, Shannon. Dawan and Abdul both have birthdays in February and in 2012 they had a combined party. Abdul’s son plays in a Bluegrass band called The Creak and they were going to be playing at the party. Dawan wanted Patrick to meet Abdul and Patrick was excited that he could bring his banjo for a jam session afterwards. The party was nice with great food and drinks and the band was really good. Afterward they all played for a long time. As we drove home Patrick told me, “I know this was Dawan and Abdul’s party, but I really feel like it was especially for me, I had so much fun.”
After that Patrick and Abdul regularly got together to jam, eventually calling themselves Grass Half Full. The following February we were talking and I mentioned that Dawan and Tom were in Hawaii. He said, “I KNOW! They took Abdul with them!” I laughed and said, “Well, it was for his birthday.” And he said, “I know, but it is OUR anniversary! That pretty much summed up how much he enjoyed Abdul’s friendship. They continued playing together and even had a gig or two.
Dina and Jeff arranged for them to play at the Central Sierra Historical Society and Museum. While they were there they were asked if they knew any songs about logging or the Shaver Lake area. Since there weren’t any songs Patrick sat down with Jeff and gathered some area history and then over the course of a few weeks in early 2013 he wrote 8 songs. They renamed themselves The Steam Donkey’s after the machine used in logging and one of the songs he had written. Patrick designed a t-shirt logo and had t-shirts made.
One evening they were practicing and I came across an email from Mike Kuhl, my cousin Keith’s best friend who we now consider family. Mike wanted to know if Patrick still went to monthly Bluegrass jam sessions. I told him that he mostly played with a friend and I was actually sitting on the couch listening to them. I asked why he was asking. He replied that he finally bought a stand up bass and wanted to play it. I told him he should come over right now. Then I told the guys and they said, ” We need a bass player, tell him he’s in the band!” He didn’t come that night but they eventually got together and the band became three.
They had a lot of fun for the next few years, mostly just jamming together but they played at least 5 times in Shaver and once in Clovis.
Abdul moved down south so they weren’t playing as often but had a concert scheduled for June of 2016. Like everyone else they were devastated when he died.
Abdul recorded a video for the memorial service that was included with the slide show I previously posted. Here is the link to the video of Abdul. Abdul’s Memorial video
He sent the link the Sunday after Patrick died. This happened to be the same day as the season premiere of Game of Thrones, a show that we had all watched together. We had all been at Dawan and Tom’s but the girls came home early to watch the premier. They were very happy that the character Jon Snow was brought back to Life by Melisandre, the Red Priestess. When I got home I sat on the couch with them to watch the video. It was very emotional since we could see how much Abdul was hurting. After it ended we all sat there crying. After a few minutes I was getting worried that they were still crying. Sierra looked up and said, “I just wish the Red Lady would bring Dad back too.” We all looked at each other and started laughing. It was the kind of thing their Dad would say. I knew we were gonna be alright.
Abdul got the tattoo below on his arm in memory of all the good times.
