Last week my community lost a good person. Tony Duggleby was an alternative energy entrepreneur, working to make the world a better place for everybody. Just as important, he was the soul mate of a dear friend, Nancy Levidow. They found each other pretty late in life, but they made up for lost time with an incandescent love.
Tony went to the ER in Vancouver BC on October 3 with breathing difficulties that turned out to be pneumonia. He struggled for twelve days, but the damage to his organs was too severe and we lost him.
I didn’t know Tony well, but he was a pillar of our community. The loss to us all is a terrible thing, but for Nancy to have found this love and then had it taken from her is more than anyone should have to bear.
I went looking for the line in “Sugar Baby” that says, “Some of these memories you can learn to live with and some of them you can’t,” but that’s not really what I mean to say here.
Every moment of existence seems like some dirty trick
Happiness can come suddenly and leave just as quick
Any minute of the day the bubble could burst– Bob Dylan
“Quarter to Five” is an instrumental that I composed while my best friend, Tina Loney, was dying from cancer. I put a lot of emotion into this music. Performing it keeps Tina with me and allows me to transmute my grief.
This week I have been playing “Quarter to Five” for Tony as well as for Tina. This recording, from October 17, ends in an unusual way, illustrating some of the rage I’m feeling over our loss, and especially Nancy’s.
Quarter to Five (For Tina Loney) – for Tony Duggleby
While you’re listening to it, read about Tony and see what his friends and family have to say about him.