( ( ( ( I found myself locked in a battle against a swelling horde of electronic opponents. >> /ColorSpace /DeviceRGB ( This artistic defect doesn't, however, prevent "Our Friend" from presenting the grown audience for whom it's suitable with much to admire -- and imitate.The film contains an adultery theme, mature references, including to homosexuality and cohabitation, about a half-dozen uses of profanity, twice as many milder oaths and rough terms as well as considerable crude and crass language. He had carved a Mohawk of his own to match hers. Yet, he hasnt given up on Hollywood, either. The film had its world premiere under its original title The Friend at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival on . No spiritual release. I showed him mine, a loopy screed about needing her phone. ", The way dying looks, or so I expected, was like this: A small group of friends and family gather around the patient, watching as she draws and releases her final breath. ( x+4337U0 B33c0a o, Her husband, Matthew Teague, can be seen on her right. ( ( "No," she said again, disgusted. ( Every issue Esquire has ever published, since 1933. ( ( Jan. 22, 2021 Gravitas Ventures When his best friend Nicole Teague was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012, Dane Faucheux dropped everything to move hundreds of miles away to help her and her. >> Our Friend vs. the True Story of Nicole Teague and Dane Faucheux Our Friend (2021) REEL FACE: REAL FACE: Dakota Johnson Born: October 4, 1989 Birthplace: Austin, Texas, USA Nicole Teague Born: June 26, 1978 Birthplace: USA Death: September 9, 2014, Fairhope, Alabama, USA (cancer) Casey Affleck Born: August 12, 1975 Birthplace: In: Holt S, The American Society of Magazine Editors (ed. I moved her left foot, then her right foot, and so on until we had completed the task. ( /L 1042448 It surprised me how emotional I felt watching it, Teague recalled. [6], Filming began on February 19, 2019, in Fairhope, Alabama. ( In January 2019, it was announced Casey Affleck, Dakota Johnson, Jason Segel and Jake Owen had been cast in the drama film The Friend, with Gabriela Cowperthwaite directing from a screenplay by Brad Ingelsby, based upon an Esquire article by Matthew Teague. ( ( ( ( ( 0J4j*P>}~ the friend article by matthew teague pdfhorseback riding on the beach naples, fl. ( She shed weight, but we expected that. I still have a few memories. ( ( Maybe they will just let me die here. ?! ( more info http://movieroar.net/movietrailers/2021/01/our-friend-remarkable-advice-in-an-unusual-surprise/ ( ( ( Another friend of Nicole's had agreed to come sit with her, he said. It sounded like someone slowly dragging a cello bow across her vocal cords. and took off his shirt. ( ( ( ( ( ( In it, Teague details how his best friend . ( this is an incredible story of what friendship is about. The Friend (Matthew Teague, Esquire) "No one ever told me the truth about dying," writes Matthew Teague. Why was there so little milk in the refrigerator? Real dying, regular and mundane dying, is so hard and so ugly that it becomes the worst thing of all: It's grotesque. We couldn't figure out how she was doing it. For months after Dane moved in, Nicole couldn't eat much, so I fed her intravenously. Each night, he would sit alone on our porch after Nicole and I went to bed. He covered C.I.A. "After that, you'll have to get up.". Teague's wife Nicole. ( ( They looked like angels, perpetually falling to earth. ( /DecodeParms << /Quality 65 >> In this article, I examine the alternative economics of reciprocity in American DIY (do-it-yourself) culture. Dane finally decides to go home after putting his life on hold to live with the Teague family for over fourteen months. They seemed impossibly joyful and healthy, and we could hear them laughing above the sound of the water. ( ( The next morning, I found the brick of weed in the right spot, wrapped in clear plastic, and on top of it, the day's mail. Matthew teague the friend essay - suggest He felt restless and started spending more time in his room. He vowed things would be different this time. ( Dane had lived with us for almost a year now, lived in the shadow of death, and he and I found ourselves cracking jokes so dark, so morbid, that they defied explanation. I tried to help her sit up, but she said, "No, I'm a Barbie doll. ( ( During those times, Nicole was adrift on an opiate sea. ( Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. stream /Resources << /XObject << /X0 16 0 R >> >> ( ( She just stopped. ( And unlike Dane, I had not worked out in ages. /Type /Catalog Scared? ( "Don't question this, Matt. I remember the tile, close to my face, and then watching it retreat as my best friend picked me up from the floor. ( Anyone can read what you share. Written by Brad Ingelsby, based on an article by Matthew Teague. Please login or register with De Gruyter to order this product. ( ( Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The film had its world premiere under its original title The Friend at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2019, and was released on January 22, 2021, by Gravitas Ventures. ( ( Ak$+ne)Mg+"&# 4-Xb\2 g8Cwop+dX1Cpx?Z ]K@,&IRb,d, ~QhyDbC{`O p=:@5R 32 h!U,Y[f $A + VKmu4.f\p ###-k_g-$lN9;Eak>"m%%tX9x ;`zwv@FA MEsjZ.,?B0W%1 x#"TpWb'[y 3: Yc1Q Y{kl1;}w I touched her cheek and her eyes fluttered open. Was it spoiled? /H [ 645 147 ] We cried laughing, imagining the puzzlement of witnesses on the scene: "This guy just walked in and stabbed him. ( And Teague, now 44, knew the drill. We both laughed. The Friend: Love Is Not a Big Enough Word His wife was just thirty-four. 8I2=e] 2X4@hVBR=aXhETfPI( QSZ"u:ro2sAoF I7ZQE0,X,4 The Friend Published by Columbia University Press 2016 The Friend From the book The Best American Magazine Writing 2016 Matthew Teague https://doi.org/10.7312/asme16957-013 Cite this M ost of September 17, 2012, has evaporated from my mind. ( She took one bite and handed it back. ( For months, we tried to catch it with everything from colostomy bags to special gauzes to cloth diapers, but the stomach acid would burn through any adhesive and eventually started eating her flesh. When that didnt work (I realized Im too close to this, he said) he signed on as an executive producer and worked closely with the writer Brad Ingelsby (The Way Back) to craft a film that both depicted the realities of death and celebrated the life that came before. Hopes and heartbreak. I woke and dressed and fed the girls, Molly and Evangeline, who were ten and seven. Those forums are populated by people in similar awful situations who go online to hear yes in a world that is suddenly telling them no, and these peoplethis faceless mass of online handlesalways told Nicole to keep fighting, that she could beat this, to just ignore my negativity. ( When I handed it to her, she shook her head. And another man's refusal to let it happen. ( In a flashback to 2000, Matt, a journalist, and Nicole, a theater performer, live in New Orleans. /MediaBox [ 0 0 960.75 663 ] ( ( A mercy killing. ( ( "Combined. ( June 5th, 2015 2:38 pm, molino jim on ( The Friend May 1 2015 MATTHEW TEAGUE Daymon Gardner View Article Pages Features The Friend His wife was just thirty-four. When Matthew Teague's wife started dying from cancer, his friend came to help out and ended up moving in. Registered nurses could, but they could come by only once a day. The reviews landed like a gut punch. ( ( UHG%v$0{ZS ( Too cowardly to sit and bear it, I would curl in the fetal position on our porch swing, where she could not find me. Teague M. The Friend. ( ( )L.Q^gKE+(z]QqEy(=.JZ.Q^kE4tUm7A?Vi( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( (x_X0v m9 {Od?V@n8H [ mhQjeicT ~ HfG@TTq)KB ;AS[\Gwm 'ts 1FA MEV[F[L#dWwzl.(7FF_j1'L@VDip]_o>Fw$vOg,&FGWpB`b(BpQ$Wz She couldn't remember how. /O 14 "It'll be weird, though, because you'll be married by then.". Finally Dane said, "Let's do it!" Average Long-Term Mortgage Rate Falls A Fourth Straight Week . ( Too Bad, My Nurses Are Dead, and I Dont Know If Im Already Infected, A Visit to the Sweat Lodge and Santa Muerte, Full of Grace and Stop Sending me Jonathan Franzen Novels, Down for the Count and The King Has Spoken and The Power of Sight. Nicole's illness had cost Dane; at thirty-six, he had given up a management position and a girlfriend back in New Orleans. Teague is using the experience as a growth opportunity in his career as a journalist. ( "I think I'd like to have myself a shower," she said. The Friend Published by Columbia University Press 2016 The Friend From the book The Best American Magazine Writing 2016 Matthew Teague https://doi.org/10.7312/asme16957-013 Cite this Share this You currently have no access to view or download this content. So I felt like I had done right by Nicole.. ( (DH+e&CX?[HS@QAj'0MvtYQ#k3Z 2V`1HIZR-ICaBFZ\tE`-tYE{EO ( Her jaw drooped. His wife was just thirty-four. ( There was a loophole in the law, though, they said: Someone else could administer it. ( I didnt want to mishandle it, he said. And clothing. ( ( Matthew Teague's article in the May 2015 Esquire magazine about the life stolen from his wife, 1995 Northview High graduate Nicole Rolin Teague: How My Friend Saved Me When Death Took the. [11] It was retitled Our Friend, and released on January 22, 2021. ( He burned through his weeks of vacation time, visiting the hospital during the day and sleeping at our house each night. "I got this on my pillow," Dane said one night. 12 6 ( - - -Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.- - -CAPSULE REVIEW"Our Friend" (Gravitas Ventures)Screen version of a 2015 Esquire magazine article by Matthew Teague (Casey Affleck) recounting the unwavering and selfless support the journalist and his terminally ill wife (Dakota Johnson) received from their best friend (Jason Segel) who, as her death approached, moved in with the couple and helped to care for their two daughters (Isabella Kai Rice and Violet McGraw). Teague has remarried and now also has a 3-month-old son named Wilder.). One morning he sat down with me. They're coming slow.". It would make me a better caregiver for Nicole. ( Sometimes hours later, sometimes weeks. ( I crawled into the bathroom and curled around the base of the toilet, shaking and weeping. NICOLE TEAGUE OBITUARY. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. It's written about a friend of mine. In a season of butchery and wreckage and defeat, she had triumphed. By matthew teague / photographs by daymon gardner. ( BEST CAME TO HELP OUT A couptE WEEKS. NEW YORK (CNS) -- In 2015, Esquire magazine published Matthew Teague's article "The Friend: Love Is Not a Big Enough Word." In it, the globetrotting journalist focused on a personal story far removed from his usual international beat, recounting the unwavering and selfless support he and his late wife, Nicole, had received, during her terminal illness, from the best buddy they shared in common . ( ( "Nah," he said. Her face relaxed. Two of his previous pieces were optioned by various producers, but no movies were ever made. Titled 'The Friend,' the article told the heartbreaking story of his beloved wife Nicole Teague's diagnosis of terminal cancer, and how their best friend, Dane, became an indispensable addition to their family. I watched, speechless, as she pulled off the last of the gauze and made her way to the shower, dribbling stool and acid onto the floor as she walked. On this particular day, she had asked me to make her a turkey sandwich, which I did and then brought into the bedroom. Matt works as a war correspondent and spends months overseas, putting a strain on the family. ( agTDPf; ^`4 3 O)=u2:7b%g4F"bF^'A6]H6n7g=( (4c$qH. "isp[uU)um>[hQ@rx>#_%r+ #.rhkk There is no force under heaven as mighty as a band of middle-aged Baptist ladies, and from inside the room we could hear Dane wage a battle of kind intentions. In September 2012, Nicole receives her diagnosis and begins to undergo chemotherapy. The truth was that, after two years of suffering, Nicole finally felt no more pain. ( "If I have to put her in a backpack and carry her to the chemo ward, I'll do it if it means getting an extra day with her. One morning early last summer, I found her standing over the stove with the gas wide open while she tried to teach Molly how to light it. 17 0 obj $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ? Matthew Teague is known for Our Friend (2019) and The Infiltrator. ( "So you're trying to starve me," she said. ( Then she graduated to Dilaudid, which is seven times stronger than morphine and ran on a continuous pump around the clock, alongside a terrifyingly powerful drug called fentanyl. I have the way the surgeon's voice shook. ( ( One man's collapse. "Give me a Mohawk.". But it has nothing on journalism my first love for hard knocks., When Some Critics Reject the Film Thats About Your Life, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/movies/our-friend-matthew-teague.html, Matthew Teague in Fairhope, Ala.: I wanted my wifes legacy and memory to be one of enormous respect., Dakota Johnson and Casey Affleck as the Teagues in Our Friend.. He had driven from New Orleanswe were living in a small town called Fairhope, Alabamato stand guard for hours in the hallway outside Nicole's room so that she could sleep. We had met Dane fifteen years earlier, when we all lived in New Orleans and they were in college together. I blinked at Dane and we both burst out laughing. new york in 2015, esquire magazine published matthew teague's article "the friend: love is not a big enough word. ( ( ( ( Thanks OP 119 [deleted] 8 yr. ago 16 0 obj vaC~3,KI9$5ak,un;m1Hh\`zi 9`z;Hl:0~1$VXVK 8QqEy!T=. ( ( Judges Hear Appeal From Victim's Family In Adnan Syed Case. ( ( ( ( Today Teague still bristles at this criticism. Starring Casey Affleck, Dakota Johnson, Jason Segel. Sometimes at night, Nicole would wake howling and sweating, with a twist in her bowels. ( ( ( Afterward, we stepped into a bathroom so that she could look in a mirror. But what really took me aback was how emotional the audience was. They had two little girls. Menu. He would sit with her, rocking on the swing, and listen while she talked about bad dreams. ( I heaped the stuff on this time. When visitors came, though, we could see it reflected in their faces, or when her shirt slipped to the side, exposing her collarbone. Each night, Nicole would lie naked on the bed and, using tweezers, I would extract a piece of ribbon from the wounds in her abdomen, sometimes several feet long, which would uncoil in the air above her like a pus-covered tapeworm. ( Judge Denies Stand Your Ground Defense In Cantonment Gas Station Murder, Students Learn About Ag During Northviews Fresh From Florida Event (With Gallery), Body Found In Cantonment Along East Kingsfield Road, Escambia County Officially Approves Funding For ERECs North Escambia Fiber Internet, Wanted Sex Offender Captured After Tip From NorthEscambia.com Reader, Tate High School Names Students Of The Month, Escambia Woman Claims $1 Million Lottery Scratch-Off Prize, Laziness Encouraged: No Mow March Promotes Pollinators in the Panhandle. 'The Friend: Love Is Not a Big Enough Word', an autobiographical piece by Matthew Teague published in Esquire magazine in 2015, describes the two years between his wife Nicole's cancer diagnosis and her [] Motion Picture Association rating, R -- restricted. ( ( Daddy needs to fix the stove. I remember my wife calling my name while she was still under sedation. ( Michael Brown Sr. & the Agony of the Black Father, Lance Armstrong in Purgatory: The After-Life. Then medical supplies started to arrive. Great mounds of it. trailer "You need sleep," he said. Yet, despite his carefully calibrated work, success in Hollywood is never a guarantee. When she smiled, men imagined she needed them, and she smiled a lot. "I guess I'm not dying fast enough.". That's the trailer for Our Friend, a movie based on the true story told in this Esquire article by Matthew Teague: The Friend: Love Is Not a Big Enough Word. Her body no longer recognized food as useful and was now expelling it directly out the front of her abdomen, like a foreign substance. ( ( THE CANCER was EVERYWHERE, ANDTHEPARTS OF DYING THAT NOBODY TALKS ABOUT WERE ABOUT TO START. I heard Dane come to the door, and she told him I needed help. Upon their return, Matt realizes that they are no longer equipped to care for Nicole so he calls a hospice nurse, Faith Pruett. The nurses came and replaced Nicole's dressing. I helped them with their homework. OllGr$*@!ta qWY6:zTE{ It's a devastating confession of the last years of his wife . startxref Movies. Yes. /Filter /DCTDecode So I had developed a pitying skepticism of other men's motivations. ( Actually, I know she is going to die." "And for your girls," he said. ( "Just to help out for a couple of months.". The Friend. The Friend: Love Is Not a Big Enough Word, Six Years After the Shooting in Chardon, Ohio, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. ". Screen version of a 2015 Esquire magazine article by Matthew Teague (Casey Affleck) recounting the unwavering and selfless support the journalist and his terminally ill wife (Dakota Johnson) received from their best friend (Jason Segel) who, as her death approached, moved in with the couple and helped to care for their two daughters (Isabella Kai It stars Jason Segel, Dakota Johnson, and Casey Affleck. ( ( During those months, Nicole was drugged and mostly unconscious, and I lay awake listening to the IV pump. ( ( ( Are people going to get a chance to see it?. u$#B `>9.vfq1EG UAQ+]\De}[ The dead guy told him 'thank you.' It got to where I started hiding from Nicole, unable to face the rage. She was unrecognizable with hatred. "I'm still part of this house.". Her gesture of kindness, plus an unexpected voicemail from the Teague family, renews Dane's will to live. He would read, or call his friends back in New Orleans, or count raccoons crossing under a streetlight. ( ( FUM!AJ@ 8+[ e"n(GA&VQ T7SDb k'eVmwPV_DlG) (c8)x 4aD\_6\UgC/Dkcq+v&hl+^Fbvmni@UsSN8|j|o:DR\NAa(F0 mn>m6@~1JimH(pQb-2B (l;If#D8u]uTFpO xf\MpkNSJ$-/ P |QA90BT_ ^(#3cQXFz>tpzdAs,c/l*7}j- qPlTa43tF` kA4D)oD -ba-/ t@cS7(qD{IDHmZ '%}%"EJuD& f.`)! ( Each night, though, I lay down beside her, she would tear into me for hours, propelled by anger and fear and Dilaudid. ( He could just live with us, and I would split my income with him. ( "Hound dog," the nurses called it. ( You need this.". I could appeal to nothing, because nothing trumps dying. Outside, their best friend Dane Faucheux keeps the children company. Instead, he and his wife, Nicole, moved to Fairhope in 2003 and raised their two daughters,. ( Yet, if you see it onscreen, people are going to throw up their popcorn and run from the theater.. ( ( It's undignified. We sat on the floor and drank amid the wrapping paper of the girls' Christmas presents. ", Julia is a kind woman, but honest. But in my physical depletion, I discovered what Dane had known all along: My mind felt sharper and was more hopeful than it had been in months. ( ( Her voice was diaphanous, like she was calling through silk. I told them to just leave it in their mailbox, where I could pick it up. ( ( 0000000645 00000 n >> ( ( Quakers and mental health: Mike Wash, former trustee director at The Retreat, speaks his mind. ( The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. Teague, M. (2016). Its not a gentle industry, he said. Nicole's pulse had faded days ago, to the point where no one could feel it. It didn't taste right. endobj endobj You are both. I don't remember how long I lay in the bathroom, but the light through the windows had shifted when I emerged. So we stood watching her for a couple minutes. The Friend. ( These values, together with the presentation of the Teagues' resilient marital bond and a sequence that takes a strong stance against suicide, help to compensate for the complete, though unspoken, absence of faith in an afterlife among the characters.The real-life Nicole was, apparently, deeply religious, but this is nowhere in evidence. Returning home, Nicole dies with Matt and Dane at her side. ( Dakota Johnson and Casey Affleck star in a scene from the movie "Our Friend." @]L69kc3jXZI)7J_0~8:,mcdXbOSg>iw7v3@Ze\XQI}Aajet[r%r\F *jf_W7, hyDbC{`O p=:@5R 32 h!U,Y[f $A + VKmu4.f\p ###-k_g-$lN9;Eak>"m%%tX9x ;`zwv@FA MEsjZ.,?B0W%1 x#"TpWb'[y 3: Yc1Q Y{kl1;}w However, as Nicole's condition worsens, Dane decides to remain with them, taking on many household duties. /S 54 For Teague, the critiques felt unfair, but more important he was worried about the effect they would have on the fate of the film. ( The Motion Picture Association rating is R restricted. ( ( And he was making some sort of secretive arrangements with my other friends. "In it, the globetrotting journalist focused on a personal story far removed from his usual international beat, recounting the unwavering and selfless support he and his late wife, Nicole, had received, during her terminal illness, from the best buddy they shared in common, Dane Faucheux.Under the slightly altered title "Our Friend" (Gravitas Ventures), Teague's award-winning piece comes to the screen as an emotionally wrenching but ultimately uplifting drama.Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite and screenwriter Brad Ingelsby treat tragic events in a spare, matter-of-fact manner that magnifies their impact on viewers. Months to live. We don't tell each other the truth about dying, as a people. ( ( ( Would the film find a home with initial critical response so tepid? Dane said. Registered nurses could, but they could come by only once a day. My body was useless; I could feel my equilibrium shifting left and right, as though I were still hiking. ( Until Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. jjv2\%w;uJzs EV Mnwg4{j. ( As directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite from a screenplay by Brad Ingelsby, the emotionally wrenching but ultimately uplifting drama treats tragic events in a spare, matter-of-fact manner matched by restrained performances from the gifted cast. And he never left. she asked him. /Height 884 0000000588 00000 n To this day, her lead nurse, a woman named Faith, saves a photo of one of Nicole's Dilaudid pumps, which she shows to other nurses. "She needs antipsychotics.". We discovered that Nicole was secretly ordering things online, clinging to her role as shopper. The friend by matthew teague. I see now that, after fifteen years of marriage, this was my first step down a path that diverged from hers: hers toward death, mine toward a life afterward. ( Your documents are now available to view. ( Friends came and decorated the room, and our two little girls curled up against Nicole in her hospital bed while she read " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas." /Linearized 1 Lied. With vast discretion, he didn't try to pick me up from the floor this time. She ate so much of it that when Dane and I went to the grocery store, we would buy two jars at a time. ( When the author's wife was dying, his best friend moved in. One day Dane touched my arm and I cried out, unsure of who he was. ( ( Weeks. Matthew Teague's "The Friend: Love Is Not a Big Enough Word" tells the story of both those abstract concepts love and death through wrenching anecdotal experience. ( She wanted to jump into the downtown fountain with all our friends. Johnson, Violet McGraw and Jason Segel as the Teagues friend, Dane Faucheux. "I found it in the bathroom," I told him, "stuck on the wall opposite the toilet, at eye level when sitting.". Men trailed Nicole everywhere; in grocery stores men would follow her from produce to dairy and out into the parking lot. ( His best friend came to help out for a couple weeks. ( ( You put your hand on her shoulder, or you put your hand on his shoulder. ( Nothing tasted right. ( ( ( /Info 11 0 R ( ( Not real dying. It's a small-scale human story, precious few of which make it to film these days. /Length 36 ( The writer recently returned to the screenwriting game and adapted his 2003 GQ article about the over-the-top war games in North Carolina into a mini-series called Pineland that is now being shopped around. When he found one, he explained our situation to the veterinarian, and after some testing she blurted, "I'm so sorry, but this dog has cancer and I think she's going to die. ( Then I would repack new pieces of ribbon into the holes, folding them in, spiraling them inside her, while she wept and begged me to just skip it, please, this one time. I think I did, at least; I was trying to zip up my pants before entering the room, where Dane stood with two nurses. Dane decided to move in around Christmas 2013, on the night our dog died. ( The cancer was everywhere, and the parts of dying that nobody talks about were about to start. The remaining thread of the last fiber of the final cable holding me together just snapped, and I rolled off the bed. ( << ( He admonished me with profound compassion. On that day, he stopped as he climbed into his car. ( I remade it, spooning on double the mayonnaise. They had two little girls. /Type /XObject ( ( "I'm going to let you stay like this for one more day," he said. They shared their own painful stories with such overwhelming force he was often struck dumb" by the response. ( The more visceral parts that, in part, made the essay so memorable were omitted: specifically Teagues role in the grotesque art of wound-packing and the physical horrors that accompanied it. But she asked me to meet her in the living room with a towel, scissors, and my beard trimmer. ( ( I couldn't make out what he said, so I rinsed off and stepped out of the shower. I stopped eating and drinking. ( One morning, she staggered into the kitchen, shocking us all, and announced that she planned to make eggs for the girls. ( She started eating again. These potions interrupted the signals between her mind and body, along with everything else in the physical world; her hallucinations disturbed Dane and me and would have terrified the girls. If You Dont Know, You Need to Read This, The New American Slavery and All You Americans Are Fired, Pregnant? ( Like somebody dipped a paintbrush in cancer and flicked it around her abdomen), the friendship between Teague and Faucheux, and Nicoles dying wishes (jumping in a downtown fountain with all her family and friends, becoming the grand marshal in her towns Mardi Gras parade).