HiDo K.D. Road Trip
Format: Interactive installation.
Status: Ongoing.
Hashtags:
- #HiDo
- #HiDoKD
- #HiDoAdventure
Josh Bruce’s mother, Kathy Denisee Bruce, passed away on March 1st, 2019.
A son’s eulogy
My mother, Kathy Bruce, was found deceased in her apartment on Friday, March 1st, 2019.
She was an amazing human. I know you’re supposed to say that, but I’m not just saying that.
She flipped houses before it was cool. Spending her days taking down walls, putting them back up, and painting them. She taught herself to pour ceramics using a kiln she kept in her home. She was the manager and owner of a house turned apartments. She was a teacher and community leader in the Denver area. Mostly all at the same time, a true queen of the side hustle.
She counseled battered women in the greater Denver metropolitan area. She administered multiple online communities, some of which she created herself. A hardcore naturalist and observer of the world, fascinated and giddy by things she had not seen or done before, even late in life.
What struck me most about Mom, though, was as she got older, she took on more and more the look and feel of Janis Joplin captured in old newsreels and interviews, complete with a cackling laugh that turned the soul.
Her big-brim hats flopping up and down, revealing her big-rim, rose-colored glasses. Her brightly colored clothes draped over her like a series of cloaks waving around as if she were underwater at times. She dyed her hair bright red but subtle enough not to look like a clown.
She was always playing with something. Learning something. Reading something. Experimenting with something.
Food was probably my favorite as a kid. Dissecting and learning about squids, before cooking and eating them, for example.
She had her moments and days, as we all do. For me, however, I will always remember being related to Janis Joplin’s doppelgänger.
Many will sing the blues at the loss, and mom will be here, in spirit, pullin’ her harpoon from her dirty red bandana, playin’ soft. Joplin’s album Pearl was released after her death and was the first to hit the Billboard charts, at number one, for nine weeks, and went quadruple platinum. I don’t know if a bang like that is prepared for Mom or if she would have preferred to only live on in the hearts and minds of those she impacted.
I do know I am forever changed for having known, experienced, and interacted with her.
I also know I’m not alone. Thanks, Mom.
At this point, I’m reminded of the final recording of Janis’s life, which is also on Pearl. It’s an a cappella piece entitled Mercedes Benz. Janis closes it with a smile you can hear, filling the room with a quick, cackling laugh preceded simply with a jovial, “That’s it.”
A mother’s obituary
Kathy Denisee Bruce, 62, of Hobbs, NM, formerly of Denver, CO, passed away March 1, 2019.
She was born September 21, 1956 in Lamesa.
She is survived by her daughter, Nova Brygger (Scott) of Carmel, IN, son, Joshua Bruce (Becca) of Nashville, TN, three grandchildren, Ariel, Ashton, and Rylee Brygger of Carmel, IN, her mother, Geneva Sumrow of Seminole, brothers, James Kolb of San Antonio and Joe B. Logan of Seminole, sisters Amy Kate Logan (Troy) and Donna James (Jeff) both of Seminole and numerous nieces, nephews, extended family, and friends.
Kathy was preceded in death by her father, Carrol “Tex” Kolb and grandparents K.K. and Katie Whitaker.
A celebration of life will be Saturday, March 16, 2019 from 2 PM-5 PM (Mountain Time) at Griffin Funeral Home, Hobbs, NM.
Printed in papers in Seminole, TX (Seminole Sentinel), Lubbock, TX, and Hobbs, NM.
Josh was laid off in late 2018. So, it was fortunate timing for an unfortunate circumstance. He wasn’t obligated and bound by the bereavement policies of an employer. He could take his time and work with friends and family to close out Kathy’s business with the living.
One of the items left behind was her car. Before figuring out what to do next with the car, he needed to get it to Nashville, TN.
Josh spoke with a long-time friend and mentor who planted the seed for this project by saying:
If I can offer some advice.
Take the drive back to Nashville slowly. Use the time to see some of the country you have not spent time in and sort out your thoughts.
I drove from southeastern Georgia to Leavenworth, Kansas, in one shot several years ago, and I regret that on that entire trip, all I saw were truck stops and Waffle Houses.
Josh heeded the advice and planned a one-week road trip with his mother’s ashes. As we continued working on the project, the loss, destruction, and surrounding emotions turned the road trip into an interactive project, as things tend to be with me.
The first few iterations came quickly. First, we’d document the road trip on her primary social media platform. We’d include photos and journal entries.
Kathy was a creative spirit. She made ceramics, sculptures, and drawings. Later she tried her hand at videos, poetry, and other media. Most of her work was under her first two initials, “K.D.”. “HiDo” was one of her linguistic creations. It was a contraction of “Hi! How are you doing?” She was also heavy into symbolism.
One of Josh’s memories of his mother was when his parents divorced. Kathy would stay in Colorado, and Josh, his father, and his sister would move to Ohio. Josh’s father, Tony, was in the military at the time, and Ohio was his next duty station. On the day they were leaving, Kathy gave Josh a piece of an ivy plant in a pot. Confused by the gesture, Kathy explained:
When you were born, my dad bought me this plant. So I’ve been carrying it with me everywhere we go.
For the last 12 years, when we moved, I gave a piece of the plant to friends where we were. So, there are pieces of you all over the place.
The HiDo K.D. Road Trip was born.
We wanted to put pieces of Kathy into the world so they could be passed around. Kathy was a collector of various things, especially related to water. She had a collection of sea shells from trips she had taken or from friends who traveled and brought them to her. During the memorial service, people could take shells as they saw fit. Following the memorial service, there were about 50 shells left.
Josh was introduced to something called Geocaching by a friend and joined in 2011. The premise of Geocaching is people set up containers (caches) where people can visit and leave a thing, take an item, move a thing, and register that they found the cache. Unique game tokens called trackables are also part of the game; they have a unique identifier. Trackables often come with what’s called a hitchhiker, which is fitting as Kathy had hitchhiked at least once or twice in her life.
We purchased 50 unique identifiers and made the physical game tokens ourselves, as the metal ones were too expensive and would take too long. The shells became the hitchhikers.
Times of strife are often when humans pull together and want to help each other the most. It’s often as if the event pulls us out of our day-to-day and reminds us of a world beyond ourselves. Many of Kathy’s friends and family could not attend the services and reached out to offer condolences and support. We invited them and anyone else on the road trip, even as casual observers.
We did this by inviting folks to sponsor some of the trackables. In return, we’d improve the quality of the trackables and enhance the food and lodging possibilities along the way.
Josh was perfectly willing to sleep in the car and eat fast food the entire trip. Josh could stay with friends and family for the first few nights. And, in most cases, they were kind enough to offer to pay for a meal or two. So, most of the money received went to improving the tokens.
Within the first few days of opening the project to crowdfunding, we were able to get the game tokens laminated. Then we were able to upgrade some of the containers. Finally, in a few cases, we customized the trackable to the person who sponsored it.
Through fortunate timing, Josh negotiated a job offer before the road trip and was able to take his time back to Nashville before starting on the next adventure.
We still have plans for this project. In the few years since it started, the trackables have traveled thousands of miles.