➤ DEAN WRZESZCZ , from p.18
HBO’s utterly queer vampire series
“True Blood.”
In recent years, Dean’s friend
Court Stroud, a fellow writing
group member, recalled, Dean put
in earnest time at his West 45th
Street apartment building’s gym
keeping in top shape. He also became
something of the “mayor” of
the complex.
When news of Dean’s death
emerged, a resident of the building,
Michael Sage, wrote on Facebook,
“I will always remember our
epic ‘Hard Rock Monopoly’ game
by the fi replace at Gotham West…
Always made me laugh about anything.
The consummate Court
Jester has been taken from us. I’m
absolutely gutted.”
Stroud recalled Dean’s love of
his apartment on West 45th and
said that despite the tragic circumstances
of his death, Dean
“went out on a high note.”
Stroud was the last to see Dean
alive, having done a grocery run
for him on April 2. Dean had
trouble getting to the door when
Stroud arrived, explaining that
hours earlier his legs had gone
out from under him. Stroud tried
in vain to persuade him to go an
emergency room, but said, “Dean
was very willful.”
Dean’s sister, Vicky, recalled
days earlier also running into a
brick wall in pressing him to go
to an ER. Like Stroud, she acknowledged
his stubborn streak.
As children, Dean, two and half
years older than twins Vicky and
Richard, would organize hilarious
games where the three would play
records and get up and sing and
dance, always trying to make each
other laugh.
But, she said, “He was the big
brother. He was obstinate.”
Brother and sister spoke on
March 29, when Dean told Vicky,
“I think I have it.”
Dean then launched into an angry
tirade against Donald Trump’s
false promises from earlier in the
year that coronavirus would be no
big deal in the US.
His fi erce anger over his illness
was something Stroud mentioned,
as well.
“He had so much anger that he
was getting mean, and I told him I
had to hang up,” Vicky said.
But the text Dean sent her the
Dean Wrzeszcz used the professional name Dean Resh as a young actor so that casting directors could
make it past his last name.
next day did not necessarily refl ect
the obstinacy of a stubborn man,
but rather the thoughtful-evenwhile
despairing confusion of a
sick man in a city that was holding
out no real promise it could heal
the sick.
He wrote, in part, “Mean? I’m
angry. I’m scared. Mean? No, I’m
not mean. You’re talking to someone
whose body is envied by men
half his age. I can breath on my
own. My immune system is working
fi ne. Becoming exposed to the
virus in New York City is practically
guaranteed. How sick one gets
is different. I have mild to moderate
symptoms. Only the hacking
dry cough scared me for a few days
into thinking I could get pneumonia.
But I know I’d be more sick if
I sat in an ER for six hours. One
big difference all of us can do is
keep our germs/ droplets to ourselves.
As much as I hate the guy
in the White House, I feel it’s my
job to know every fucked up thing
he does. Lying around taking my
drugs (the ones I have taken for
35 years!!), sleeping, watching
TV, and isolating while trying not
to freak out are all part of taking
care of myself. Protecting others
by staying home, and I’m not
doing anything physical I’m not
ready to do. I wash pajamas and
towels and sweaty sheets and pillowcases,
and disinfect refrigerator
handles and doorknobs. I get exhausted
from that. Physically and
psychologically. I have tried buying
a thermometer for weeks. No drug
store had any. I got one ordered
and won’t receive one until April 11
from Amazon.”
In addition to sister Vicky
Wrzeszcz and her wife Sheryl Carpenter
of Erie and brother Richard
Wrzeszcz and his partner Christine
of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania,
Dean is survived by halfbrothers
Samuel Randazzo and
John Wrzeszcz and half-sister
Joanne Fritz.
Among the many friends he
leaves behind are Isaacson of Riverdale,
Stroud and his husband
Eddie Sarfaty of Manhattan, Adams
of Fort Lauderdale, H. Richard
Quadracci of Hollywood, Florida,
and the Reverend David McFarland
Nuttle and his husband Tim
Nuttle of Pittsburgh.
A memorial will be planned at a
later date.
GayCityNews.com | April 9 - April 22, 2020 19
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