An Important Friendship: there is no end to the appreciation that I feel for Charles Hedge.
I took over a wonderful architects’ studio at The Brush Factory, Centerbrook, Connecticut, in 2007, and met Chuck there, with his Riverside Antiques Store next door. My young Golden, Oakley, fell in love with him at first sniff, but he always liked to say that he and I hated each other right out of the gate! A little strong, but true maybe. Still, after she waded and “fished” in the river, Oakley liked to sit on his porch with him… so much so that we had to get over ourselves. Somehow we became good friends who sparred, and it was fun almost always! Years passed.
It’s a well-documented story about how I “made” Chuck adopt Duke and how they became Chuck’nDuke! (It is reprinted here with Duke’s portrait.) He never lost his love for Oakley though, and he was in my studio for coffee the Sunday morning that my six-year-old “puppy” collapsed. Chuck drove O and me to the emergency vet, and 45 minutes later he drove me home. But I couldn’t stay there, so I went to Chuck and Ellen’s, we sat by the fire and cried, and they loved me through it.
Then I went through a devastating time of my own in ’13, and Chuck, as was always his way, was there. He picked me up at the hospital. He listened to me when I refused to claim this diagnosis, though I know he thought I was nuts. He worried about me, and he never let me forget it. I always said, “Just Stop It! Don’t you know that worry is nothing more than planning for something you don’t want?” He brought me food when I couldn’t walk, took me everywhere I needed to go, and he held me when I cried because “they” said I’d probably never paint again. He built beautiful things for me when I turned my studio into an apartment, and I painted for him when I finally made liars out of “them” all. Thankfully, Charles Wesley Hedge always believed in me… except for the thinking I was nuts part!
Wanting a fresh start and against all odds, I left Connecticut for North Carolina in 2015, because as I always said, “I am not a goddamn Yankee!!!” (even though my ex-husband is a very nice one ;-)) Chuck continued to worry about me. But then he was glad for me, too, because it turned out to be a good move. In one of our last texts, I told him how happy he’d be to see me charge out the studio door and walk wherever I want to go in this little town without a thought about it! I never got to show him how well my healing still goes, nor convince him that my #1 remedy is belief. I never got to have another of his lobster rolls, never acquired a taste for his Maker’s Mark, he owes me some oysters with mignonette, and I haven’t written the book that he fussed at me about as late as a couple weeks ago… that one will haunt me a little, until I write. But I’ll never get over that I can no longer pick up the phone, catch up with Chuck Hedge, and tell him to stop worrying about me!!!
We had pet names for absolutely no reason… I was Sophia, which was my “Starbucks name”. (When you create an alias for fun in Starbucks, just be sure to remember it when they call it out!) And he was Zorba, because I believed he was infused with that character’s spirit. I hope he’s out there with Ellen and Duke, Holly and Betty, sailing on a Greek sea, laughing and dancing in everlasting light.
Love you always, Z, and Godspeed! 💙
"We're Good!"
Oakley, with her good buddy, Chuck, on the porch at Riverside, his wonderful antiques store next to the studio at The Brush Factory, Centerbrook, CT
Oil on linen; 9 x 11″
Collection Charles Hedge
©2008 Karen Killian
Godspeed, Zorba! 💙