R.I.P. Axel Dirksen
I just received this e-mail from Ruth Waterhouse of the Alley Cantina. It’s a message forwarded from Port Townsend, Washington.
Dear Alley Cantina,
I believe Axel Dirksen sometimes played at your place in recent years.
I am very sorry to inform you of Axel’s sudden passing. She died alone on her sailboat last Thursday night and was not discovered by me until nine the next morning. When Axel did not show up for a coffee meeting with me on Friday at 8:00 when were going to set up a rehearsal. I got worried because it had been very cold Thursday nightt, and she usually drank several glasses of wine before going back to her marina about a mile from downtown Friday Harbor. Also she always kept her cell charged and was very good about staying touch with friends.
At this point, the cause of her death has not been determined. When I found her she was sitting slumped over on the floor of the galley in her boat. Her sudden passing was a great blow to me and to the friends she made here.
Last Saturday night was to be her first gig as a headliner at our local bar/restaurant The Rumor Mill. Over the past few months she’d been coming to open mic and began to build up a following with each appearance.
On Friday morning a sheriff came quickly to the boat and went down in Axel’s boat to make sure it was not just a concussion.
He came back up to tell me sadly that she was definitely gone. He also said that when someone dies unattended and with no local kin, that the coroner usually requests an autopsy to determine cause of death.
Axel told me not long ago that she had a younger sister in Germany, but I never learned the sister’s name or home town.
Today, Sunday, the county coroner called me hoping I could give him information about the sister. So far the Sheriffs here have not been able to find anything on her phone or on her computer, or in her personal effects to help them reach Axel’s sister, so if you or any friends of Axel’s in N.M. might be able to give some useful information, please have them write me an email and I will forward it to the coroner here.
Last night, Saturday, the musicians who would have accompanied Axel, played at her wake. The place was full. And we all knew how much we would miss her and her music.
From Jim McCormick in Port Townsend, Washington
Here are a few recordings I managed to make of Axel on the sly. At first, she was not happy I had recorded, but eventually she was proud of them.
And also:
http://romancito.com/sounds/axel/awesome_run.mp3
http://romancito.com/sounds/axel/summertime.mp3
http://romancito.com/sounds/axel/nobody.mp3
