By Peggy Sturdivant

There’s a bulletin board just past the yoga room at Ballard Health Club. From it, looking right at me after class, was the face of a young man, his fair skin especially pale against a gray backdrop. “My name is Asher,” the poster read. “I am 22 years old. I have a brain tumor. For my birthday I’m getting brain surgery.”

If it wasn’t for such strong graphics, I might have passed it by. But there was the young, smiling face of a 22 year old, same age as my daughter. “The Kiss Café is throwing a birthday party on Saturday, July 27th.”

The already written column, the grocery store and the guests from London would have to wait. When I called Brenda Reed at Kiss Café, she told me to come down to learn more about the party and benefit. I was there inside fifteen minutes.

Brenda Reed and Oakley Carson opened Kiss Café in 2007. It’s the type of place with lots of regulars, in part because of the Ballard Drinking Team, the good food, huge beer selection, dogloving owners, 11-11 hours and breakfast all day. Brenda hired Asher Deaver for the kitchen in 2011. He was just twenty.

“He’s not a cook,” she said, “he’s a genius.” She pointed to a suspended rack for wineglasses, a sidebar and at objects I couldn’t actually see such as shelves in her truck and office. “He’s an amazing carpenter. He makes guitars. He’s an artist. He’s a musician.”

“For some months I’d been telling a regular, Travis Farber, who’s a furniture designer/builder, ‘You know, you need to hire Asher.’ Then their company got written up and got lots of orders. Travis said, ‘We should hire Asher.’” She continued, “He has a brain tumor I told him, but yes, you should. Now Asher is living his dream.”

While visiting his family in Arizona some months ago, Asher had a major seizure. When he needed time off for a doctor’s visit after his vacation, Brenda knew something was up. Hearing that Asher had a tumor seemed to really piss off Brenda. “You have too much to offer this world,” Brenda declared and launched into planning mode. “You have to get it out.”

What Brenda calls Asher’s Golden Birthday is Wednesday, July 23rd, when he will turn twentythree. She decided to host an all-day benefit for him on the following Saturday, with all tips going directly to Asher for his uncovered medical expenses and the costs of not being able to work after surgery. There will be a silent and live auction and music performance by Asher and friends at 9 p.m. on the 27th.

Brenda’s boyfriend, J. Allard, is a graphic designer. She sent a photo snapped on her phone of Asher and told J. what she wanted the posters to say. “Asher finds them a little creepy,” she admitted. “At first Asher and the love of his life Stacy just wanted to deal with it all themselves, but they just can’t. Financially, emotionally …”

Courtney, a musician friend of Asher’s also started an Indiegogo online fundraiser for him. By the time he learned about it, there were already a few thousand dollars raised. Tips, auction donations, the benefit, Indiegogo, $5 here or there, Brenda doesn’t care so long as it’s coming in.

“The other night another regular, Rick, gave me $100 and said, this is for Asher. Someone else said they’d match it. I gave Asher the $100 and said this is for your birthday, not for your stupid tumor.”

“You should meet him,” Brenda decided. She packed us a lunch and took me to a building just west of the Ballard Bridge to see Asher Deaver at work in the Marian Built Fine Hardward & Furnishings shop. We climbed metal steps up to the rooftop and Travis, Asher, Brenda and I sat just above the Ship Canal on overturned buckets eating Kiss Café sandwiches and Asher’s potato salad.

Asher says his girlfriend Stacy, a brewer at Hale’s Ales, loves the creepy poster. “She enjoys laughing at it,” he said. He knew there was going to be a poster at some point but was shocked to come face to face with himself arriving for work at Kiss Café one day. Asher, a quiet person, doesn’t want to talk about the tumor. He clearly prefers creating to talking.

“I like doing anything artistic. Music, drawing, woodworking,” he said. He smiled at a discussion of wood types. “Whenever I ask Stacy what wood she thinks it is, she always guesses oak.”

Some of his family will be coming out for his birthday and the benefit, his sister for sure. I asked him if he was looking forward to getting it over with. “I don’t know if I will get through it,” he said. I was referring to the attention on him due to the benefit. Asher Deaver was referring to the surgery to remove the tumor from the left frontal lobe of his brain.

“It will be a relief to get this taken care of,” he said as he, Travis Farber, Brenda Reed and I sat on top of the world by the Ballard Bridge on a beautiful Friday. “All the doctor’s appointments and pills are annoying.” His conscious surgery is scheduled for July 30, a week to the day after his 23rd birthday.

“Let’s talk about Brenda,” I said. “Is she like this with all her employees?”

“She’s bossy,” Asher admitted.

Brenda beamed as if there could no finer praise. Then she uttered her current refrain. “Die tumor
die!”

The Kiss Café fundraiser for Asher Deaver is all day, July 27, and includes a raffle, a live & silent auction and live music from Asher and friends at 9 p.m. 2817 NW Market Street.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-asher-deaver-get-well-soon
http://www.ballardkisscafe.com/

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