In Loving Memory

Many of you I may know or have met on the path of life through or with my friend and mentor know sans alias as James P. Bertholf.

Jim has touched many people and in the thirty years that I have known him I have witnessed a steady path that he set for himself of living on the edge.

A commitment set by his desire to fight. To fight the three bouts of cancer that plagued him since the time I met him to last dying day. But most importantly he set out to fight for what he believed in and live to those standards.

At the recent wake for Jim set in San Francisco s North Beach a perfect setting for such an event I might add I met with a variety of characters who came to share their love of Jim. The stories of love compassion artistic endeavor flowed.

There was an unmistakable theme. If you had been there and not been told who this wake was for you would have easily figured it out.

There are few people I know that carry such a history of a passion for truly living life as an artist poet political activist and his love of theater as a director actor designer and author gave voice and action to his many points of view.

At the wake I ran into friends of Jims that he met only 6 months ago and others that have know Jim for over 45 years. They all showed great respect for Jim and the way he was able to motivate others into action and give them a possible new perspective of how to approach lifes various challenges.

Mia a sweet soul who had know Jim the shortest yet was there for him until the end shared a story of meeting Jim at the doctors office in August when he went to get his diagnosis. They left the office and spent the afternoon together talking about art life and all he wanted to still accomplish. Then they got onto the BART traveling to their destinations. Jim exited in East Bay where his motor home was parked and Mia continued to San Francisco to her home. When she arrived and checked her email there was this from Jim waiting for her