19 Comments
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Nancy Todd's avatar

I really love each one of the tributes to your lovely husband, but the sous vide mango is hilarious. I clicked on the link to his bio, expecting to see a wise and venerable looking grey bearded sage, but was shocked to see how young of an old soul he is. A keeper indeed, but how lucky he was to find someone who would organise such a wonderful gift. You are clearly very well matched. Thanks for sharing, I absolutely love this post.

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Cate Hall's avatar

that's very kind of you to say!!

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Nick Moore's avatar

What a wonderful tribute! I hope he has a sense of his dispersed effects on readers, too. The article he wrote on strength training back in 2021 is what got me started lifting weights (though, it took me rereading it in 2023 to really start; the seeds took some time to germinate). My entire relationship to my body and the world has changed as a result.

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Cate Hall's avatar

oh wow, I will make sure he sees this!

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Harrison Moore's avatar

This made me feel alive and grateful 🥲

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Cate Hall's avatar

thank you, Harrison!

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Charlie Becker's avatar

This is a beautiful tribute.

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Jesse Chapman's avatar

What an unexpected read. Truly unique and beautiful. Whenever I have a friend who's dealing with a toxic partner, or even just a partner that doesn't give them what they deserve, I'm going to send them this article so they know what real love looks like.

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Ari's avatar

This is beautiful. I feel happier just knowing that someone like this exists in the world.

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Cobin Soelberg's avatar

I can't speak for anyone else, but if I had my dear friends say give even one of these amazing tributes, I'd consider myself blessed.

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Marie Williams's avatar

Well, isn’t this just lovely? I love the tenderness and joy that are so evident in what his friends have chosen to highlight about Sasha, and I love the care that has led you to create such a beautiful gift for him. We all need a Sasha in our corner, clearly, and a Cate too.

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Raffi Grinberg's avatar

So lovely to read!

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cyriac's avatar

What a lovely birthday present. You rock

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Ben Giordano's avatar

In a short consult, Sasha noticed something about me I wasn’t ready to hear. He said it without force, and left it alone. Which is probably why it stayed with me...

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Shadow Rebbe's avatar

Beautiful list for a person who is clearly beautiful

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Jonathan Rowson's avatar

Fabulous. What a lovely idea, and beautifully executed. I can add that it meant a lot to me that Sasha reviewed one of my books, and particularly that he liked the ending which he acknowledged is often hard to get right; I’ve often read it again with that sense of being seen and appreciated. The way he engaged in general stayed with me and I was sorry we never got to talk about the differences between being good at chess and being good at writing and our respective struggles with both. I hope it may still happen…

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Myq Kaplan's avatar

Dear Cate,

What a loving letter! All so beautiful.

Some of my favorite fragments:

"‘Oh, it’s so simple. After you sous vide the mango …'"

"it’s not too late. It’s never too late."

"playing bartender or scent-tender"

"the blanket is made of helpful clever words"

"The fact that the most distressed I’ve ever seen Sasha was having to play a deception game with his friends"

"he always gives me the benefit of the doubt"

"‘look, this is a pretension I have, isn’t that funny?’"

Thank you so much for sharing!

Love

Myq

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Cate Hall's avatar

Thank you so much!

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Avantika Mehra's avatar

This is lovely - thanks for sharing!

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