Tag Archives: death

Amid loss, no tears from these Atlanta clowns

Date: February 18th, 2013, 6:34 pm

February in Atlanta is circus month, and but not all the clowns are goofing under the Big Apple and Ringling Bros. big tops.

Far from the spotlight, for all but two weeks a year, a local troupe of clowns managed to practice their craft for tiny, tough audiences: some of the sickest kids in Georgia, even some who are dying. As clowns, they’ve kept their show going on this year even after sudden loss in their own ranks.

For the surviving members of the Big Apple Clown Care Unit, creating laughter in the face of heartbreak has transformed them far more than wearing a funny hat, a fake nose and makeup ever could.
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Posted in Atlanta, Michelle Hiskey, Saporta, Transformation | Tagged Big Apple, Big Apple Clown Care Unit, cancer, children, CHOA, circus, clown, death, dying, Egleston, Haller, Hart, heart attack, Scottish Rite, survival, Tortorici, transform | 2 Comments

Mardi Gras vibe inspires survival for Cajun and zydeco dancers in Atlanta

Date: February 11th, 2013, 2:47 pm

Carolyn Barbay of Atlanta climbed out of the grief she had over losing her husband by re-discovering the music of her home state of Louisiana and learning the Cajun two-step and waltz.

Instead of driving eight hours, she only had to travel a few miles to the Knights of Columbus Hall at Buford Highway near Lenox Road, home of the Atlanta Cajun Zydeco Association’s monthly fais do do (parties) featuring a live band playing authentic swamp music.

She found a tribe bound not by blood, geography, language, culture, ethnicity or religion, but by a deep love of the forward-driving, accordion-centric sounds of Acadian music from Louisiana.
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Posted in Inspiration, Life Changes, Michelle Hiskey, Transformation | Tagged Atlanta, Ben Smith, cajun, cancer, dance, death, inspiration, louisiana, mardi gras, recovery, resilience, SaportaReport, survival, transplant, zydeco | 3 Comments

Through writing and golf, Furman Bisher taught about life and death

Date: March 25th, 2012, 8:00 am

When Furman Bisher came into my life in 1986, I was fresh out of college, a whippersnapper sportswriter in awe of the legendary Atlanta Journal columnist. Aged 68, he seemed positively ancient.

Over the next quarter century, I studied the way he worked and wrote, and we became friends through our shared interest in golf – a sport that connects people of diverse ages and abilities.

When “the Bish” died a week ago, to me he was a young 93, because he changed my view of what it meant to grow old.

He did this by example — by living and writing the way he played golf.
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