Sketches of Fishtown # 60 - Kevin Mulholland

I never posted this when I published it in the Spirit Newspapers. It was late January, the same week as my book release party: 


I am very sad to say that Kevin passed away last night. We were very close when we were younger and spent a lot of time bumming around the corner of Hewson and Belgrade. I think about those days hanging on that corner and my friends who were there with me all the time. Those years would have been unbearable if not for my friends. They were hard and uncertain years. But we always had each other. It was like the center of my universe.

Even though we've all grown apart to an extent, when I see those friends today, they still make me feel the same way. I return to that comfortable feeling that I belong, and I really fit in. When I walked in Kevin's barber shop or saw him around the neighborhood, everything always fell right back into place, like we were still on that corner. Tonight I have a crushing pain in my chest at the thought that he is no longer with us. He is the second friend from the corner that we've lost. My friend Brett passed away in 2005.

My heart breaks for Kevin's child, wife, Mom, Dad, brother and sister. I know that as we get older, we should anticipate that our world will get smaller. This is just way too soon for me. I love Kevin like a brother, and I am really really going to miss him. Rest in peace, Kev.