Jonah’s death ten years ago commenced a journey for many of us that has been filled with sadness (of course) but also with love — so much love. With this campaign, “10 Years Later,” you’re invited to spend some time with some of Jonah’s best friends and teachers.

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Meet Maddie Hendricks.

Maddie has worked on the CW’s Jane The Virgin for the past five years, starting as the Showrunner’s assistant, then as an Associate Producer, and is currently a writer on the staff. Maddie is also a playwright whose work has been published by Samuel French. She co-created See What Sticks, a monthly workshop with an audience in LA where artists of all disciplines come together to present works in progress.

Maddie writes:

“Look at the moon, look at the moon, look at the moon!”

I can still hear Jonah saying the words, capturing the PGT audience with this loud, bellowing voice. He was acting in a production of Hair, and I was in the front row of the audience, enraptured. I had worked with Jonah many times over the years, but I remember thinking that night how he was so meant to play this part. It felt so him.

Since Jonah’s death, there have been hundreds of times that I’ve looked up at the moon and thought of him. It’s almost as if it belongs to him now. And I love that.

I still hold my memories of Jonah dearly. That time he swooped in to save our production of Once On This Island by playing an important role just two weeks before opening. Or when he played the old doctor in Grand Hotel and quietly stole the show with his sharp and specific physicality. I’ve carried Jonah with me on some of my travels; that time I went to Morocco and felt so strongly that he would love it there. I still shiver when I hear “Redemption Song” or “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” songs from his funeral that have now become interwoven with his memory.

“Look at the moon!” (June 2008)

But more than anything, for me Jonah lives on through art. Good art. Anyone’s art. The play I wrote last week. That great short film I saw this year. The cool installation at that up-and-coming gallery. Through these pieces, he lives on. I think it’s because when I was a teenager, I so desperately wanted to be an artist. Someone who held music, theater and art above everything else. And for me, that was Jonah. I wanted to be like him.

So now, I feel Jonah with me when I look up at the moon and see good art. He’s created this magical connection for me between nature and creativity. He’s there in those tingly, special, larger-than-life moments when I remember how small I am, and how big this world is. Jonah’s legacy lives on and constantly reminds me to do what I love.

For that, I’m forever grateful.

Maddie