I performed at The Iron Horse in Northampton last month — my first time in this storied location.
While I was sitting, waiting to take the stage, I noticed this small plaque on the side of a beam beside me.
It’s hard to read in the photo below, but it says:
Anju Soparkar Diggs
loved watching shows from this spot.
Remember her, and enjoy the show!
I love this. We need more of this. Human beings are so easily forgotten. Even when remembered, it’s often only a name and a few benign biographical details.
But Anju Soparkar Diggs? I knew a little about her that night and am happy for it.
I, too, loved watching the show from that spot.
I also found her obituary online. She died in May of 2021. She sounds extraordinary.
So, in the unlikely event I someday die, I want plaques like this, too, placed all over the world on my behalf.
Here are just a few suggestions:
- At The Bitter End in New York: “Matthew Dicks loved performing on this stage more than any other.”
- At the 15th hole at Rockledge Country Club: “Matthew Dicks put more balls into this pond than anywhere else.”
- In the classroom I’ve occupied for 24 years and counting: “Matthew Dicks spent 24 years in this classroom, making kids laugh and teaching them to be confident and kind.”
- On the entrance gate to Yawgoog Scout Reservation: “Matthew Dicks spent his boyhood here, and a large part of his heart will always be here.”
- On the front door at 3 Commonwealth Avenue, Townhouse #1 in Attleboro, MA: “Matthew Dicks lived here with James Bengiovanni in a riotous, joyous home that became known as The Heavy Metal Playhouse. It probably saved his life.”
- In Grand Central Terminal in New York City: “Matthew Dicks proposed to Elysha at the top of the stairs, and reader, she said yes.”
- At the top of the castle at the top of Mount Carmel in Hamden, CT: “Matthew Dicks climbed this mountain with a friend named Elysha but came down with his future wife.”
- At the McDonald’s on Prospect Street in Hartford: “Matthew Dicks spent seven years managing this restaurant, learning more here than at any of the colleges he was attending at the time.”
- At the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City: “Matthew Dicks told his first story on this stage and unknowingly changed his life forever.”
- On the steps at the back of Blackstone Millville Regional High School: ” Matthew Dicks asked Laura Marchand — his first love — to be his girlfriend while sitting on these steps and miraculously remained friends until the end of her days.”
- On the largest tree in front of Wolcott School: “Matthew Dicks and his students spent their pandemic days under this tree, turning a potentially terrible school year into something truly special.”
- On the front door of our home: “Matthew and Elysha Dicks raised two beautiful children in this sometimes underfurnished, sometimes too small home that was always bursting at the seams with love.”
