The elusive House of Yuri Notes was to be a place to call home for his music—a place for the memorable moments of the past, present, and future. We sold his house in a flood zone in Roselle, where he lived and worked in a basement studio for twenty years.

June 16th was Yuri’s birthday. He would have turned 74, young enough to continue being the working musician that he was. He had a lot of music in him. Three years ago, on his birthday, he asked what had happened to him after the first vaccine-induced anaphylaxis shock ravaged his system to its core just as an earthquake uproots and traumatizes its bedrock.

Memorial Day is Opening Day of the summer season, yet for the past two years, Yuri and I spent the weekend and weeks following in the ICU. This year, on Saturday, family and friends gathered at a morning memorial service, requiem, and repast commemorating the 40th day since Yuri’s spirit and essence left his physical self, ultimately melding into the universe of our collective consciousness.

Today is Yuri’s name day. May 6 is St. George’s Day. Name days, these traditional feast days, hold a unique significance as they commemorate a particular holy person, often a saint or martyr, and celebrate an individual's given name. They are not just collective holidays marked by national calendars but personal celebrations

It was Saturday night, April 25, 2009, when the band Kinderhook's rocking revival reunion with the campers from the 1970s took place. Like the rest of the crowd that filled the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Whippany, New Jersey, I anticipated a night of returning to my youth during the Plast Scout Camp years in East Chatham, New York, a stone's throw from their namesake Kinderhook Creek. That night, Yuri and I met. Eye contact.

I am sleepwalking and still reeling from having to write the words that Yuri Turchyn departed this world peacefully in my arms on Sunday, April 14, 2024. Time of departure: 15:05. Sail away.