Celebrating Catherine Hennessey's Life

Last night was a Celebration of Life for my late friend Catherine Hennessey. It was a lovely event, held on the lawn at Beaconsfield on a perfect summer night.I was asked to be one of the speakers, to reflect on my relationship with Catherine. I ruminated a lot about how to express the essence of how important Catherine was to me, and I went through many drafts. As I wrote, I excised out the “and then this happened, and then this happened,” the way my writing can often tilt absent a compass. I tried to heed the words of Mathew Dicks—”So a story is about change over time. Usually, it’s sort of a realization.” And the advice of Lisa, who’s forever encouraging me to write with a deeper connection to my feelings than to the chronology.I think I ended up with something honest, and I got the sense, watching the audience as I spoke, that more than a few people saw themselves in my story.Here’s what I said.–––We sat around the kitchen table, my late partner and I, in the kitchen of Catherine…