I was really sorry to hear about the death of one of my favourite members of my open mic community. Our friend Gordon Velasco died this morning at 4am from an aggressive infection in his gall bladder. His wife and music partner Debi announced it this afternoon.
You’ll remember Debi and Gordon as the wonderful ukulele duo Lelehuna. They frequented my Takoma Park Open Mic with Debi on ukulele bass and Gordon playing beautiful, joyous tenor ukulele. I’m grateful that I got to have them so frequently, and they were my first open mic performers to aggressively pose the INSTANT my camera pointed even vaguely in their direction.
Gordon was charming and talented and will be missed. Here’s Debi’s statement:
“Dear friends and family, last night around 4 am, my darling husband lost a battle. We have been waiting for this battle for 13 years, so we were not surprised that it came, only with the suddenness of it’s arrival. He had a bad infection in his gallbladder that he could not fight. He had some earlier pain but died in peace. His son, Andrew and fiance Amanda were with us. He will be cremated and per his wishes, we will have a Memorial Party in about one month. I will post more details soon. Thank you to everyone for all your prayers and good wishes. Please be happy that he got to spend these last years doing what he loved, playing music, talking story and cooking good food. We will not mourn him, we will celebrate the way he lived his life: Wid plenny aloha!”
