Anne Rice

Anne Rice Instagram – This is Christopher. It was raining in Los Angeles this morning, raining like it did in New Orleans when the plane carrying Anne home touched down on the tarmac this past January. Rain is so rare here in Southern California it’s hard to see it as coincidence. A year ago this morning I came to after a night of dozing fitfully in an uncomfortable chair next to my mother’s bed in the ICU. We’d brought in a small stereo to play classical music for her as she transitioned. While she was no longer responsive, every few minutes I would take her hand in mine and assure her, “I’m here, Momma. I’m here.” She lingered for more than a day after the doctors told us we were sure to lose her at any moment. Late in the morning on December 11, 2021, we would move her to a quieter and more private area of the hospital where she would peacefully slip away later that evening. When the moment came, I wept at her beside. When I reached the hospital bathroom, the door closed behind me, I slid to the floor and wailed. Anne, gone. It still seems impossible. A woman that momentous in talent and with a personality as powerful as thunder cannot simply disappear from this realm. The agony of her grief — for her mother, for her daughter, for her husband — built a dazzling galaxy of art and beauty and yearning in which so many of us found comfort and hope and answers. Now we were tasked with grieving her. During that time, I hope you have discovered what I have. She is not gone. She lives on in not only in her work, but through the messages you leave here about the first moment her incomparable and uncompromising voice found you in the dark. Love, @christopher.rice.writer | Posted on 12/Dec/2022 03:04:53