Happy Birthday David Cohen

Stephen Lewis
Acrylic on birch panel
5 x 7 inches
Barbara Muir ©
completed 2021
(The newspaper photo
this was loosely based on
has been on so many bulletin
boards that it is riddled with
holes from thumb tacks.
Yet it's still powerful.)

Every year I wake up the on March first thinking, 'tomorrow is David Cohen's birthday.'
I don't know why I remember the date, but I do. Maybe because March feels like
the beginning of spring, and there it is.  David's birthday. In many ways David is like
spring -- kind and hopeful as a friend. Here is what I wrote last year, and it still applies.

"I always remember that it's David Cohen's birthday, which is surprising 
because I barely remember most people's birthdays except for family. When
Steven gets off work we'll call together with our dog Sally, who
loves David, and loves "singing" Happy Birthday.

David is a brilliant writer, a passionate activist for every cause that
matters, and a wonderful, kind and loving person. He's my dear friend
Marcia LaBelle's husband, and the two of them have a very happy marriage.

My friend Marcia and her husband, David Cohen,

visiting the show On The Bright Side at the

Wychwood Barns 11 years ago.

I came upon this portrait of Stephen Lewis, and added a few more details
today.  We attended an excellent Massey Lecture by Stephen Lewis at|
the University of Toronto about 15 years ago, and were deeply moved
by his work on trying to get governments to pay for treatments for people with
AIDS.  I know that our friend David Cohen has worked for every cause trying
to improve the lives of people in his community, and across Canada. Like Stephen
Lewis, David is a great Canadian, and I'm sure he admires Stephen Lewis's work.

But to be certain I asked him tonight, and he said that if we ever saw Stephen
Lewis in our walks around Toronto, to tell him that David Cohen in Hamilton
thinks he's wonderful.

It was a beautiful day for David's birthday.   And I am very happy to
have finished this small portrait of one of my heroes."

Have a finishing the work day.