Ed Vega (Edgardo Vega Yunque) 1936-2008
 
I was reading my e-mails a week ago, September 5th, when I saw my stepfather’s name come up on my Google news search. It was the shocking headline from the Daily News: “Puerto Rican writer Edgardo Vega Yunque dead at 72”. He had left as the next of kin his literary agent Tom Colchie, and when the doctor at the emergency room of the Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn tried to reach him, they were off by one digit. Ed had actually died on August 26th, and it was 10 days later by the time we saw it in the paper. The only reason we knew is because his body had been turned over to the Public Administrator who then used a directory to find the next of kin. Ed was my stepfather, but he was also in a sense my father. He met my mother when I was 9 months old and they became a couple right away, so he essentially raised me, and I have his name. I called him Daddy (we all did) until he said one day, when I was 15, “Enough of this daddy shit. My name is Ed.” The picture above is from 1950’s. This week has been full of memories and weird details which I will spare you for the moment. It was a quick death and the doctor attending said that he was at peace, and didn’t fight what was going on. I have never heard him described that way, ever. For more information about his life, his work, and his memorial service, you can go here: http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2008/09/04/2008-09-04_puerto_rican_novelist_ed_vega_yunqu_dead.html http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/chronicler-of-new-york-leaves-the-scene/?hp http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/books/09vegayunque.html http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2008/09/04/2008-09-04_puerto_rican_novelist_ed_vega_yunqu_dead.htmlhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/chronicler-of-new-york-leaves-the-scene/?hphttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/books/09vegayunque.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2
Friday, September 12, 2008