A man who friends described as a “shining beacon of hugs and puns” will be remembered with a public group bicycle ride on Sunday, June 26th.
Aaron Proton Tarfman died by suicide on April 29th, but the circumstances surrounding his death were not made public until May 26th.
Aaron was a friend to many people in our community and had been deeply involved in cycling and transportation-related activism for many years. We shared more about Aaron along with photos and remembrances from people who knew him, in a post last month.
This morning his close friend Jay Monk announced that a procession ride for Aaron will take place in southeast Portland later this month.
Here are the details:
Fun-eral Ride Procession for Aaron Proton Tarfman
Sunday, June 26th, 5 pmSpringwater Trail at Johnson Creek Blvd
Ride will gather on the Springwater trail west of Johnson Creek Blvd. 5 pm. Dress as you would to attend a funeral. Please refrain from buying anything to attend this ride. Bringing food to share is welcome. Out of respect for our deceased friend, please only bring vegan friendly foods.
If bike riding is prohibitive, folks may meet us at Sellwood Riverfront park.
The ride will end at Sellwood Park. Slow pace over 2.6 miles of mostly flat terrain. Themes for this ride include funeral puns, resilience responses, suicide awareness, personal and collective grief support. Space given to share stories.
Everyone is welcome. More information can be found on the event listing on our calendar.
Every year (except in 2020) my community of Greensboro NC puts on its version of the Ride of Silence in mid-May when most other cities do it. It’s generally a somber occasion, complete with a police escort and about 200 community riders, mostly folks on nice road bikes, about 50/50 black versus white. This year a bunch of inner-city black kids joined us – they were hooting, weaving around through other riders, generally enjoying themselves on their cheap brakeless chop-shop Walmart specials. Inevitably several (mostly white) riders complained. The kids’ response was that they go to their friend’s funerals to have a good time, why can’t they do so at a public event? And they attend a lot of funerals – friends killed by guns, friends killed by cars, friends killed by disease – and death is just another part of their lives.
So do try to have fun. I highly recommend it – think of it as part of the grieving process.
How do we find out more about the circumstances of his death? I am not finding anything.
Hi Dan. I’m emailing you right now.
I am very glad I went on this ride last night. Big thank you to Jay and Edie!
I miss Aaron very much and am sad I will never to get to learn from him or ride with him again.