My Father: One Year Later
A self-portrait of my father. I believe he sculpted it while he attended art college.
One year ago today, on a cold Halloween evening in Bremerton, WA, my father Galen Gibson passed away.
I’ve struggled to articulate how I feel about his death. We hadn’t spoken in five years – a decision I had made, and not lightly – when I got word. The coroner, looking for a next of kin, had contacted my mother first, who sent them my way. I had to facilitate the cremation; the ashes and what few personal effects were sent to me. I shipped the cremains to a distant relative in Kentucky, where they were buried next to his mother’s grave.