Angela Wright Forever

When you get an early morning phone call or early morning message from someone who you know, who is associated with someone you love…someone who tells you that they need to talk to you right away…there is this sort-of blissful span of time in which the world is still exactly the same at it ever was…but the possibility for it to deeply change looms large and hulking inside that blissful span.

So, I guess it’s not really blissful span after all…it’s just a stasis, really. A weird pocket of time in which almost nothing moves and everything stays the same.

This morning, at a time that was very early for me but not for everyone, one of the associates who works with my long-time beloved agent and friend (not in that order) called and left me a message to call them back as soon as possible.

For some reason I cannot put my finger on, before I listened to it, I went back through my phone to see if I’d somehow missed a vacation notification from my agent and friend, Angela.

For three minutes, I sat in the not-really-blissful span.

There is no easy way to tell someone that their friend and business partner…who is literally the healthiest person they know…has suddenly and inexplicably passed away.

It’s just…unbelievable.

Honestly, I cannot even take it in.

Angela Wright is…and will forever be…one of the most alive people I’ve EVER had the good fortune to know.

I have to say, when she finally leaned into social media, watching her capture and post her abundant, exciting, friend-filled, active, destination-hopping, party-going, hard-working, family-loving life was fucking inspiring.

She constantly reminded me…via her social posts…that I needed to get out more, just for fun, and that I should do my level best to embrace it all.

About a year ago, when we went out to dinner and I told her that she was gloriously fun-shaming me and the rest of the boring people in the world,  she laughed and then a told me a story about a friend of hers who also was FINALLY trying to get out more, who came to her cottage on a lark and dropped herself and her entire purse in the lake…so, maybe I was right to be a bit cautious about my fun…but that I should still give it a try.

Angela came into my life about twenty years ago,  just when I really, really wanted and needed to meet someone who “got” me.

Angela Wright “got” me. She got me right away. And she spent the next twenty years continuing to get me, something for which I will be very grateful till the day I die.

I was desperately looking to find a business partner who could see my dreams in the same way I saw them…fulfillable. I thought I would NEVER find that person, to be honest.

AND then there was Angela.

To my absolute delight, she sure DID think my dreams were absolutely within the realm of possibility.

Her capacity to see creative aspirations without boundaries was pretty fucking spectacular.

There are so many things that I’ve done, been a part of, that I’ve accomplished, that would NEVER have happened without Angela.

She was a champion of my career,  a never-ending and unflappable cheerleader of my life who was always there, just when I needed her.

For reals.

If you are lucky, if you are paying attention, there are very special people who show up in your journey, who are absolute game-changers…and she was one of them.

There are many stories I could tell about how impactful Angela was but there is one thing she did…something that she never told me about…something that someone else shared with me…that was possibly one of the kindest things anyone has ever done for me.

Back in 2010, I had almost nothing in the bank. In fact, I had a very-lot of minus nothing in the bank. A job that I had quit many other jobs for, had gone sour. Immediately, Angela began to scour the breakdowns for work for me.

She submitted me for a show no one else would have, one of the first TV projects that meaningfully changed my entire life and trajectory.

When I got it, I still had NO money BUT had to travel across Canada for three weeks before I got paid.

I did not share with her exactly HOW hard up I was, but she had an inkling.

My saving grace was that I would get a per diem to keep me going till I got my first pay-check.

Well, the first week out, I sat in a fairly posh hotel room in Vancouver and was told by production that there was a fuck up with my per diem.

I had nothing. Like nothing-nothing and I was worried that I would not even be able to pay for my room service at the end of the week.

When I called Angela, she could hear in my voice that I was spinning. When I finally admitted to her that I NEEDED my per diem because I had NO money, she didn’t even allow me to elaborate and quietly sent me some cash.

Then at the end of the next three weeks, unbelievably my pay-check was messed up and Angela sent me more money, which I sent back…which she then sent back to me.

She worked hard to clear everything up with production, I finally got paid, I paid her back and was grateful as could be.

At the end of the contract, one of the producers told me how amazing Angela was, and I,  of course, agreed.

”Can you believe she came every pay period and picked your cheque up herself to make sure you got paid on time?”

I was struck silent. She NEVER told me. She just did it. I will never be able to thank her enough for that. I brought it up to her years later and she took my thanks but downplayed her part.

THAT is the kind of human Angela Wright was.

She wasn’t JUST a great agent…and make NO mistake, she was a fucking GREAT agent…she was also a wonderful, impactful human who I will miss till the end of time.

I pray for her family’s peace during this difficult time, as well as peace for all her friends at ETM, her clients, and all the MANY people whose lives she’s touched all around the world.

Angela Wright, thank you.

The world was better with you in it.

You will be greatly missed by all who knew you.

Tonight, as I sooth myself by coming back into this letter I’m writing to you, I want to add that I just realized that I believe and know in my heart that the huge space you leave behind will never be filled, but instead I think your friendship, dedication, trustworthiness and just plain effing joy for life will encourage myself and many others to eventually find ourselves open to being vulnerable enough to create new, joyful spaces for fulfilling friendships and meaningful business partnerships around it.

There will indeed never be another you, but you ALWAYS made me feel hopeful that even when everything seemed especially shitty…much like today…that better days were just ahead. JUST ahead.

You REALLY DID. AND you were more often than not, quite correct.

So.

Thank you for that.

And thank you for believing in me.

And thank you for staying on long phone calls.

And thank you for sitting beside me at award shows when I was newly single, excited to be honoured but sad/scared to be alone,

AND thank you for pretending to like ALL my dogs.

And thank you for loving to see me cast but always telling me how much you wished I was singing in whatever I was cast in.

AND thank you for telling me, at the age of fifty, that the best years of my career were ahead of me and then seeing to it.

AND thank you for encouraging me to do great things.

And thank you for checking up on me.

Mostly, thank you for being my friend.

Thank you. Just fucking thank you.

Oh my god. I miss you so much already.

I hope it’s not too selfish to ask that you maybe haunt me a bit.

Love,

Sharron