Posted By Angie on February 17, 2010
Bill Bell’s note:
Spencer’s Aunt Dawn – my younger sister – (who’s own contribution will be posted later) has a great life partner in Cathy LaPlante.
Spencer and Cathy were fortunate to meet during the summer of 2006 when Spencer, Brady, Deb and I went to visit Dawn and Cath up in Monte Rio (near the Wine Country of Northern California.)
This trip out West wasn’t supposed to be the last one for Spencer. It just turned out that way as he passed away just a few months later.
Spencer had talked and written about coming out to California some day to hang out with his cousin Lindsay in the Bay Area and to “live the life” he felt he was destined for. It was only supposed to be a precursor to future visits with my sister Dawn and her partner Cath.
Cath remembers a brief but meaningful visit:
Spencer Bell.
Three days in July 2006 -
that was the first and only time I met Spencer and spent time with him when he and the family visited us in Monte Rio, California.
I had been a part of the family since 2000 and had heard OH so much about Spencer over the years. His aunt Dawn is my partner and anyone who knows Dawn knows she always has something to say and always spoke volumes about Spencer…some good, some not so good but always with an intense love. A few years before in 2004, I got to meet Bill, Deb and Brady for the first time when they came to Monte Rio to visit.
But when Spencer decided to take the family trek out west in Summer 2006…that was different. I was actually intimidated by him and that seldom happens to me. When they came to visit our little cabin in the woods he got out of the car and walked into our home and he absolutely owned the place for three days. And he embraced me with such love and affection.
He taught me how to play the “real” Texas Hold ’Em with small blinds and big blinds…he clearly played it many times before (and I still lose!). And he taught me how to “drink” the perfect Kamakazi…doesn’t get much better than that! Poker and booze! Woohoo! I was drunk for 3 days! I’m a girl who likes to party and when there is an audience and participants, I always feel like I’m on holiday. This was no exception. But more importantly, he taught me about things I had never heard of before and he taught me that there is no intolerance in life.
There were some amazing moments of those three days that will never leave my thoughts. He was sitting on our living room floor in front of all of us and out of nowhere (so like him) he said “do you remember when WHAM! did the video for Wake Me Up Before You Go Go?” (which is one of my absolute all-time favorite guilty pleasures and I will lie in a court of law if asked!) Then he said “do you remember the shirt George Michael was wearing – it said ‘Choose Life.’ I really want one of those shirts.” I searched ebay and many other sources to try and find that one shirt to no avail. Once again, I think back to that moment and just smile. Whenever I secretly listen to the song I laugh out loud. He just got it. He was well beyond his years in wisdom.
The next morning we went to Goat Rock Beach on the Pacific Ocean. I’m not sure he had ever been there before. On our way we stopped and he bought this really crappy cheese for six dollars at one of the finest wine and cheese shops around. Yeah, he bitched and moaned but he was right. The cheese was crap…however, much crappier when Dawn and I found the left over remnants of it in the back seat of the Jeep two freakin’ months later! We thought it was a dead rodent!
When we settled into Goat Rock, I was sitting in the sand behind him about 20 feet away looking for sea glass as he stood and looked at mother ocean in his bare feet, sunglasses, hands in his pancho, just staring. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. For me this incredible wonder of the world, the ocean, is something I can see everyday. For Spencer, it was a defining moment.
Then he went home and wrote “Certain.” What more do I need to say about that. And I was there to witness it. Wow.
In those three days, my life changed because of him. I see things differently now. I react to things differently. I think about things differently.
Three days I will never forget for the rest of my life.
I know that was his intention all along!
Lyrics to “Certain” from Spencer’s journal
I know that there’s an ocean
I’ve touched it with my own two hands
I’ve felt the sand in the wind sting my face
The Holy nature of place
Makes God seem like a ball and chain
And she’s the only thing
That makes me think I might be sane
yeah, she’s the only thing that really makes me think
that I might be sane.
And it’s a world gone mad
When love’s so hard to find
A man without love has an empty heart
And a troubled mind
I thought I knew that love
Would end my hurtin’
But the only think I know now
That I didn’t know then
Is that I’ve never known anything for certain
I know that man’s essentially
A bastard in his own right
And that his sight is clouded by his Ego,
His bank account, his libido
His affinity for being lazy
and he’s the reason why I’ve
always thought I must be crazy
Yeah,yeah he’s the reason why I’ve always been so sure
That I must be fuckin’ crazy
Category: The Ties We've Tied |
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Attention, les textes et chansons de Spencer contiennent des scènes à caractère
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thank you Brady!)