Here's the e-mail I got from Ray's half-sister yesterday:
Hello Emmie:
I tracked you down on the Internet. I hope you and your family are well. It's been a long time.
I wanted you to be aware of what's going on with Ray. He had a stroke a few months ago. He is OK, but definitely slowing down. His balance is off and he has difficulty maintaining thought patterns. Obviously, he is no longer able to live in a 5 floor walkup. Unfortunately, he had to stop his freelance work and thus is struggling financially. His friend Jon has been to visit him often and to help out. We have decided that there is no other solution than to move him to California...which he has slowly and resistently resigned himself to. We are looking for low income housing for him. We hope that he can continue to live alone, but this is difficult to access until we see him. Ken will be flying to NY in late September to accompany him back to CA.
My best to you....and sorry for the difficult news about Ray.
Love,
Barb
Jon is an old old friend; they worked at the same small publisher for a long time. Ken is another half-sibling, much younger, but with lung cancer himself.
I haven't seen Ray since we visited when Miss T. was two months old. We've spoken maybe three times since then. I've tried calling today, but Jon tells me that he's screening calls because of bill collectors... or maybe he's just out birdwatching, this lovely afternoon.
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