Alan Dolan Memorial

The last time I saw Alan was last December at a music night in Metchosin. I mostly spent that evening chatting with Susan at the kitchen table, while the musicians played in the next room, but hearing Alan’s playing resonating through an old house felt very familiar and comforting. 

I couldn’t say how many family gatherings where he gamely led a group of musicians (some more aspirational than actual) through a binder full of tunes from Rise Up Singing. More times than I could count. One particular song that sticks in my mind from those sessions was ‘You Ain’t Going Nowhere,’ which would always get people singing along on the chorus: “Oh oh are we going to fly down in the easy chair.” Reading through some of the stories shared on the memorial site from Alan’s old friends, it becomes apparent what a lifelong passion music was for him. It seems only suiting that he was singing some of those same songs from his youth right up to the end.

While our friendship goes back to the years on Humpback road, I think a lot of my strongest memories of Alan were from the big house on Marlborough street in Fairfield. I remember his office upstairs (always with an Apple computer), as well as many potlucks, hangouts and other activities through the years at which he was a constant friendly presence.  

In hindsight, I wish I had spent longer talking with Alan last Christmas, especially since opportunities to visit with him had grown more scarce recently. I knew he had undergone some troubles with his health, but he seemed as vital as ever, and I just figured we’d see one another again before too long. I was distraught to learn how quickly his health declined before he passed. Even though we won’t get to see one another again, I will always remember him very fondly as a gentle, thoughtful, principled and kind man.

Jonah Gray