Two days ago our friend Dan Peper died from a heart attack.
It was sudden, unexpected, and is still hard to believe.
Now Dan wasn’t someone I spent time with, but he used our shop as his carpentry workshop (he was a master builder of things both big and small), and I got used to seeing him here what sometimes seemed like every day.
My oldest daugther, on the other hand, spent a great deal of time hanging out with Dan in the shop, and came to think of him a bit as a grandpa figure.
It is safe to say that his passing is the first real loss in her life.
Dan Peper was also my husband’s close collaborator in the starting and running of the Driftless Folk School – a local grassroots organization that offers adult classes in traditional skills. In fact, the folk school was practically started at Dan’s beautiful home – the home he had built – as the original meetings and some of the first classes took place there.
Saying goodbye to him in his handmade house was a poignant experience.
Wherever Dan is headed next, a part of him will always abide in the things he had built with his hands, edifices both physical and human.
Things like the butcher block in my kitchen, which has become its absolute center.
Things like the pokey horse that Dan built for my kids a year ago as a Christmas gift.
Things like the bluebird house Dan brought us the day after my newest daughter was born.
We didn’t know at the time that it would be our last interaction.
Goodbye, Dan, and rest in peace.
We have a lot to remember you by.
