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A Digital Archive Project
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from Galus Judy Halasz and Cora Fisher
Peter Halasz, our father passed away yesterday after a short battle with liver cancer. As most of you know, Peter lived a profoundly rich life, open to all experience, committed to art, so much so that life and art often blurred into one creative force. In his final months he often told us that he felt no anxiety about his death because he had lived such a full life.
The legacy he leaves behind, the impact he had in this life will remain as endless as the love and respect we all felt for him. We are grateful that we could be with him through this extraordinary and sometimes painful journey together with family members and friends. His example in these last months, as in his life, was of fearlessness, profound wisdom, humor and empathy. We are as proud as daughters can be and as lucky as can be to have grown up with such a father, friend and person. We all—his children, family, friends and lovers—will miss him deeply.
Meditating on his life's work, as a great part of him, has given us a greater capacity to surrender to this experience and understand what can be understood from it.
As he prepared us for his death, he told us: cry for a week, wail, scream, release your grief in whatever form it takes and then come together and have a great party, with music and dancing and jokes and laughter and celebrate. Whether we will be able to hold back our tears after one week we cannot say, but we would like to celebrate his life together with as many friends, family, and colleagues as we can fit into a common space.
In his spirit and style we will have a celebration-party for him sometime in the coming weeks. Once we know when that will be we ask that you come and celebrate. He always said, coming together in celebration is what gives our lives meaning and pleasure. Peter was connected to so many people and we hope to see you there. If you can attend, we would be honored and Peter delighted.
--Galus Judy Halasz and Cora Fisher