It was on my to-do list this week: “Call Michael at Elwood’s.” I was going to interview him for the Cheers department in Delray Beach magazine. Not that I needed much time from him. I have interviewed him many times. I have been going to Elwood’s since it opened ”both places”and I have known him for about 16 years now, maybe more.
But Michael Gochenour died this week; they found him Monday in his home. Cause of death is unknown and details are scarce. So I am sitting here with an emptiness inside I can’t really describe. It feels as if someone stole part of my history, or something is missing. When people die too young, it’s like that. And when people who were larger than life ”like Michael Gocheneour”suddenly disappear, the quiet is palpable.
I remember the days before Elwood’s had a liquor license when my friend Robert Walker and I kept a flask of Dewar’s in the top drawer of Michael’s desk back by the kitchen. I remember going to a dinner party at his house and him reading Uncle Remus out loud. I remember standing in front of him crying my eyes out one afternoon when I had to tell him I was getting divorced. I remember his gumbo and his girlfriend K.C. and all the times I sat next to him at the bar drinking a beer listening to him tell stories. He was an exceptional talker. He spun a good tale.
I was sad when the old Elwood’s closed and delighted to see the new one open; it had already become our catcher’s mitt bar, the place you ended up, after the St, Paddy’s Day parade, after a night out in Delray, or on a Friday night when you just felt like a little bite at the bar with your friends. And if Michael was there, it was all the better; he always made me feel like a rock star. He was always there.
So what do we do now? What happens next?
I have always found it so weird when people publish open letters in the obit section of the paper to people who have died. Like dead people look down from heaven and read the Palm Beach Post. But I sort of get it now; I can’t help wishing Michael would read this. Then he would know how much we will miss him, and how we wish we could have said goodbye.
