Completed April 2022
Just before finishing this violin, I heard from a friend that her husband was on hospice due to end-stage cancer. Thinking about our relatively short human life spans and how there are 300-year-old violins still being played on a daily basis, I thought Rick might find some satisfaction in giving a moniker to something that would continue on long after he was gone. Unfortunately, he passed away before he could choose a name, but his family got together and decided on “Yikes!” This was one of Rick’s most frequent exclamations of both delight and dismay.