when meeting her in person is an honor: "How can you resent that?" Brock's financial and physical health turned for the worse in the late 2010s. Declining artwork sales forced her to sell her home in 2017, after which she moved in with a friend who died shortly thereafter; worsening chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart disease forced her to enter a nursing home for much of 2018, while an essential tremor now prevents her from drawing the artwork that had been her primary source of income. Viki Merrick, a radio producer and former bartender at Alice's at Avaloch, serves as Brock's caretaker as of 2020. Dini Lamot and other friends in the music and arts communities organized fundraisers for her, in appreciation of her many years of support for local artists, musicians and the LGBTQ community, so that she can afford the approximately $60,000 per year she would need to remain in Provincetown. NPR reported on Brock's medical and financial problems in a feature on Thanksgiving Day 2020, prompting a flood of $125,000 in donations to the fundraiser. That same year, Brock recorded a custom series of introductions to "Alice's Restaurant" for stations that regularly play the song on Thanksgiving. Imitators The Alice's Restaurant of Sky Londa, California has no association with Alice Brock. It was founded by Alice Taylor at the same time Brock opened up The Back Room, then converted into a tourist trap by subsequent owners capitalizing on the similarity in name (eventually adding a "Group W bench" in homage to the Guthrie song). References External links People from Brooklyn People from Provincetown, Massachusetts Living people 1941 births 20th-century American artists American women restaurateurs American restaurateurs Sarah Lawrence College alumni American cookbook writers Women cookbook writers Jewish American chefs Jewish American artists Artists from Massachusetts Writers from Massachusetts Writers from Brooklyn Artists from Brooklyn American autobiographers