Good Guys Never Say Die

Ok, the good guys need to live forever and how about all the bad guys die instead? Dave was seriously one cool dude. When I met him, he was becoming a fan of my artwork at Three Cups Coffee in 2017. He bought so many of my handmade coasters that it encouraged me to grind harder at it. He even bought some to send to his family in Alaska and dubbed me "the coaster lady."

I got to know Dave as a friend, and when I was becoming an entrepreneur as an outdoor photographer who was starting her own business during a very unhealthy relationship with a commercial fisherman while living under unscrupulous landlords in Astoria, he stepped in in every way. Dave offered his tools. He shared his friends with me. He offered resources and advice on aspects of all the difficult situations I was dealing with, and they were a lot. He took my problems seriously and made me laugh during the hard stuff. He rooted for me as a person and for advancing myself into a successful business, a safer place to live, and the exiting of all harmful entanglements. He saw my independence and strength, and he encouraged me. I saw myself in him and maybe he saw himself in me.

Years into knowing him, I began pursuits of my own upon the water to heal hurt via what is called "exposure therapy" from the trauma and loss of what I thought was "love" with a man of the sea. I pursued sailing to Alaska and shipyard work, and he was all into it and followed what I was doing. He got to see photos from inside a foundry I visited in Port Townsend in the summer of 2019 and later roped me in with the Coots in Astoria in 2020 to visit a private collection of cool nautical things. I felt comfortable around his friends, and that is a rare thing to find! A true friend whose friends are cool, too.

Dave was always fun to bump into, and I think people go on within our hearts and heads so long as we live. Don't stop laughing at the stuff he said. Don't get the picture of him out of your head. He will live forever that way.