HELLO, DEAR FRIENDS AND FAMILY—

This is a tough one to write. Our beautiful and brilliant friend Roger has what’s called glioblastoma, which is a very shitty brain cancer. He’s been struggling with it since October, when on a beautiful fall day, he started walking into people and things—and our lives changed forever. There is no cure.

I won’t go here into the details of his fight for the past nine months. In brief, there have been two major surgeries, two rounds of radiation, lots of chemo, lots of visits to doctors and hospitals, lots of fear, and lots of love. Somehow—and his team at the hospital said it was “beyond remarkable”—Roger managed, in the midst of this hell, to rehearse and perform a Broadway musical, The Visit. That’s not a typo; you read that right. On March 4, the man had brain surgery. On March 10, he was back in rehearsal. On March 26, he started previews on Broadway. I mean, what a guy! And he had the most wonderful time, which made it especially heartbreaking when, after it became too difficult for him to speak, he had to take leave of the show in May.

Here we are, five weeks later. Roger’s just returned home from sixteen days in the hospital defeating aspirated pneumonia. (He’s still a strong, fit man, except for the brain cancer.) We talked about what to do next, and he said, “Just take me home.” So that’s where we are now. We organized twenty-four-hour nursing care, and Roger’s in good spirits. It’ll take a bit of getting used to, being fussed over and having strangers in the house—but soon, they won’t be strangers.

Meanwhile, people have been checking in from all over the world, and we’re both overwhelmed by how much everyone loves Roger. Not that we didn’t know it, and appreciate it all these years. But the rush of it is magnificent, and the volume of it, exhilarating. To the extent that it’s also a bit exhausting for Rog, give me a holler if you want to drop by. We’d love to see you, but sometimes the boy needs a rest, or just a good sit in the sun. There’ll be lots of that.

Tomorrow, a new week. How great to be home!

Lots of love,

Rick and Rog