Austin Does Austin

Or at least it used to.

Ella would have fit right in. (Author’s Photo)

What follows is an essay I wrote over 20 years ago. I’m publishing it because I’ve been grieving it; thought it was lost forever but it was merely in a huge stack of paper with typing all over it.

It features my dear friend Jeff, the most alive and joy-filled person on earth, who died of a flu long before COVID. As I have said, if I went to his funeral 1000 times I would never…