Skip to main content

Dear Zach....

Dear Zach,

 Almost three weeks ago, you surprised us with such scary and unsettling news.  We were shocked to learn you had suffered a massive seizure and (possible) blood clot that sent you to the hospital.

Despite your medical team's best efforts, you were unable to recover from your injuries. On Friday night, your family made the very difficult decision to remove the machines helping you breathe and keeping your heart pumping.  You passed to the other side at about 5:30 Sunday morning.  I miss you already.
Me and Zach sharing a funny moment on stage
Zach, I first met you when Roger and I were introduced to ComedySportz in November 2012 as part of a Richmond Mom and CJSTUF fundraiser.  I immediately knew that you were more than a talented improviser. You were a genuinely nice person, a good friend, and a great teacher. I learned so much about the world of improv from you.  I enjoyed reading your perspectives on comedy on your blog.  You always encouraged me, a naive improviser, with the best critiques. Your notes for improvement rarely were, "Don't do that."  Rather, they were usually, "Be brave! Try something new! You can do it!" It's hard to believe this you would have any insecurity in your performance. You made it look effortless. Perhaps, though, that insecurity solidified your belief in these words that were a running theme at our regular troupe rehearsals and performances:   
"I’m going to perform. And if I fail, it’s okay. I have people there to support me, or fail with me in a grand spectacle." [Zach Arnold, Nov. 2013]

 Those were your instructions towards improv in a nutshell. If we were going to fail, we should do it gloriously. If our partner failed, we should back 'em up.  

I think you were my favorite CSZ ref (no offense to the other amazing troupe members we know). With you at the helm, we always knew we were going to have a great show. When you were our captain, I knew you had your back.  When I had the opportunity to watch you perform, I was floored by your talent.

 Zach, like our other CSZ troupe member who left us far too soon, you leave a huge hole in the RVA comedy community and in our hearts. I cherish every moment I got to spend on stage with you.  I couldn't bring myself to say goodbye in the hospital, so I just hope you know how much you meant to all of us. May you join the greats in that Comedy Club in the sky.  See you on the flip side.  

 Much love,
Rachel  
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

The Edge of Seventeen

It's that time of year when the blog musings center on my grief journey. Every year, it seems like we are busy with end-of-the-year school activities and the start of summer, planning vacations, and then (kablam)...it's almost July 9.  Grief is funny. Grief is weird. I remember very early after Charlotte died, I watched the movie Rabbit Hole.  There's an amazingly poignant scene where Nicole Kidman's character is talking with another woman who lost a child over 10 years before (played by Dianne Wiest). She talks about grief being like a brick in your pocket. It never goes away. Sometimes you can even forget it's there. But it comes back and makes its presence known from time to time. And (she says) "it's what you have of them."    I probably did not fully realize then what a powerful and true analogy that is. As time goes on, our grief changes. Yet, it is always there on the edge of things. It sits in that pocket and sometimes makes itself known.  This...
Read more

Bittersweet Sixteen

I think about Charlotte every single day. However, this time of year, I'm flooded with all kinds of memories as we commemorate the anniversary of her birth. This year feels like a bit of a milestone. Sixteen.  If cancer had not taken her life back in 2010, I have a feeling I would be planning a massive birthday celebration this year. 16 always feels like a landmark year in someone's life.  I have been thinking a great deal about the last birthday party we had for Charlotte in 2009. We didn't know it at the time, but we were halfway through her treatment journey. We had been through three major brain surgeries and a few rounds of inpatient chemotherapy. Treatments were not going well. In fact, right after her birthday, we would make the trip to Houston, Texas where we would settle in for about 10 weeks of proton beam radiation treatments and a new customized chemotherapy protocol. This was the unspoken "last chance option" to beat that aggressive brain tumor into ...
Read more

To everything there is a season

It's been a while since I used the blog to share my thoughts. What started as some random musings turned into much more than a Facebook post. I started writing this over a week ago but it's taken a minute to actually hit the publish button. Thanks for your patience. Welcome back.   It has been a week (or two) . One of those weeks where everything happens all at once. A week where things need to happen in a particular order or everything‘s going to go to shit. A week where you just seem to go from one thing to the next thing and you’ll figure out what’s going to happen next as it goes along. A week full of work and family and rest and sleeplessness and it never feels like there’s enough time for anything. But somehow it all works out.   A plaque on the library walk in NYC My week started with a trip for work to NYC. It coincided with my birthday. Because of that, I had all kinds of feelings all week about life in general. The week ended with a trip to Florida that, unfortun...
Read more