A NOTE FROM ON POINT: We’re sad to share the news that Tom Ashbrook’s wife, Danielle Guichard-Ashbrook, has died after a long, brave battle with cancer. Below is a message from Tom that he recorded before taking a personal leave. We invite you to share any messages with the Ashbrook family at this email address: community@onpointradio.org.
For all of our On Point listeners, who I very much think of as a kind of community — an important community — there is something personal I have to share. It’s hard, and it’s as intimate as anything on Earth.
Forty-two years ago, I fell in love with a beautiful French-German immigrant girl named Danielle. We were 16. I was a farm boy, from the little house on the prairie. She was everything I dreamed of. We’ve been lovers and partners ever since. Lived all over the world. Man and wife. Three wonderful children. Even a little grand baby. A perfect love, really. And now — too early and to my dismay — my love is very very ill. It’s something she’s managed gracefully for years, but it’s just getting the better of her. I need to be with her. I am going to have to take a little time away to do that and to face what comes, with our family. It’s one of life’s tough passages, and I hope you will keep me, us, in your thoughts while I am away for a time to attend to love and family, and then return. I thank everyone for your patience and your understanding. Some things we just have to take care of. I will. And I will be back.
So, until next time, and it won’t be long…
I’m Tom Ashbrook,
And this is On Point.