Diane Dupuis, mother of Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz)

Something that always sticks in my mind is how determined Sadie’s always been. She was born a month early and spoke her first word “bird” at ten months.  As soon as she was able to stand, she would reach up to the keyboard on our piano and hit the keys. It wasn’t long after that I noticed she was tapping out tiny little tunes…unbelievable. That image of a little blond girl reaching up to make music is a tiny piece of watching that fierce brunette shredding on stage.

First, let me say I am proud of her every day. And when I see her on stage again after a tour and see how she continues to grow exponentially as an artist..well, that’s beyond cool.

Without doubt, my most proud moment occurred this March when Sadie successfully defended her MFA thesis. Speedy Ortiz was on a crazy trajectory and mere mortals would have ditched the final semester of the MFA thing for another time…. not my kid.  She had expected to defend in May, but the weekend before the band was off for a month long tour of Europe, she found it was scheduled for the first week in March. How she managed to pull it together in a weekend is beyond me, but she did.

On the day she had to present, Sadie asked me to come up. We drove her around, got food, green tea, laughed and small talked as she sorted out her book of poetry. Then it was time and we drove into this ice skating rink of a driveway where her committee awaited. As I watched my beautiful rock and roll daughter gingerly walk across the ice, my heart was so full it practically burst out of my chest. I was beyond proud at the way she’d pulled all the disparate parts of her life together into this fabulous moment. I felt the way I felt when I saw her for the first time..indescribable joy. When it was done, she came out beaming, hopped back into the car and we drove the airport. She had a gig that night in DC.