Les is More

[Barry]

Okay, so there was this guy named Les Sarnoff. He was a DJ on KINK, the radio station here in Portland my wife and I listen to most, (they've been on the air since 1968) and he hosted the morning show for as long as I can remember. Awhile back, more than a year ago, he was off for about three weeks, then came back but was on the afternoon show instead of the morning show.
I didn't understand why, until I found out he had cancer.

Before that, though, I called him one day on the afternoon show. (I do that often, call and talk to the DJs on various radio stations around town here. Not to make requests, because radio doesn't do that anymore, but just to let them know I'm listening, and that the work they do is very important and has impact.) I told him, "Les, you are more," something I'm sure he must have heard many, many times in his life. (About as often as I've heard, "Barry Manilow.")

He passed away some time later. There was a big memorial concert for him downtown at Pioneer Square, Portland's living room.

http://www.kink.fm/In-Memory-of-Les-Sarnoff/4226176

There was a CD being sold there, Les is More: The Essential Les Sarnoff

http://www.kink.fm/Les-Is-More--The-Ess ... ff/4418455

and a book titled Miracle Moments in Everyday Life, written by Les in the months after his diagnosis and before he died, the last months of his life. (see above link)

Les was a soothing voice in my ear on many bad mornings when I didn't know how to go on. I miss him tremendously. His very presence sometimes was enough to get me through the bad days, days when I didn't want to live. It's my belief that no one ever really dies, that we just...pass on. So I know that Les, even though I don't hear his voice on the radio anymore, is still here. And I know that he is now so much more than he ever was in life. He has passed from mere physicality and become part of everything. Not just part of everything. Everything. Les now truly is more. Knowing this comforts me. Even so, I dearly miss him, and I will never forget him.

To Les, who was and still is, more.

Peace,
Barry

[hester_prynne]

AWww. My heart goes out to you, to this situation. I get a feeling he was a cool sort, tho I never got a chance to hear his show.
Curtis Salgado is one of my faves though, so I know the man had soul since Curtis was there playing.
My condolences to you and your wife.
H

[Barry]

Thanks, hester. It's just that on my birthday, the 16th, it'll be two days short of six months, and I still miss him, hearing him in the morning. It's like you forget, until you're forced to remember. It's grief: it goes on, until it doesn't.
Thanks for understanding.

Peace,
Barry
PS: And Curtis, yes, my wife looves him, too. If she could've, if Curtis would have asked her, I've no doubt she would have dumped me for him long ago. (I mean that in a humorous way.)