The Scuba Diving Whale is a book pursuing unasked questions down to their depths.
This children's story takes us down into the mysterious ocean, but the author also has a story, Christopher Hayden.
Christopher was raw. A noble savage, a percussive vocalist, a reveling poet, a nihilistic romantic, a relentless provocateur, a bacchanalian lover. With one of the sharpest tongues in Philadelphia he sparked the spirit in everyone he touched.
Amongst family and friends, Christopher departed our world in 2020 in his apartment in Fishtown. Music played and the sun shined in as he took his last breaths.
Too fast to live. Too young to die. He will be missed.
We don’t need lungs where we’re going.
Christopher was inspired to document the absurdity and difficulties of ALS. We filmed him navigating the disease and making his children's book.
Christopher dreamt up the idea to make a children’s book while teaching in Philadelphia elementary schools with his partner Kristin. After he was diagnosed with ALS, he found an interested circle of friends and family to help realize his vision of the whales’s quest in an illustrated book.
Before he passed, Christopher was able to finish the text of the book as well as complete the majority of the pages with illustrator, Raehan Blankinship.
The Scuba Diving Whale is a story of pursuing unasked questions down to their depths.
We are lucky to have a way to continue Christopher’s legacy.