It’s been over a year since Jennifer Escalante passed away.

On February 18, 2024, the co-owner of Midtown record shop Sig’s Lagoon died, after a two-year battle with glioblastoma grade 4 brain cancer. (She would’ve turned 52 the following March.). For her husband and business partner Tomas Escalante, it’s taken him a year just to get in a comfortable place to speak at length about his wife’s passing.

“It's funny to say it's a year because, if you would have told me it was a decade, I would have believed you,” says Escalante, 55, during a Zoom call from his Midtown home. “It was really difficult – really, really difficult at first. And, for the past few months, I’ve kind of seen the light of just some change. Just kind of being able to function in areas that I couldn't before. And there's still a lot to do.”

Both hailing from Corpus Christi (where they also exchanged vows), the Escalantes were married for 26 years. During those years, they raised two sons – Evan and Miles – and operated two record stores, Sig’s and Sundance Records (where they were employees back in the day). Escalante remembers moving to Houston with the family and immediately building Sig’s with the Mrs.

“We jumped headfirst when we started it,” he says. “I mean, at first we weren't even aiming to really be a music store or record store. We were kind of doing gifts and a little bit of music, and we were gonna do coffee, I think, at one point.”

Escalante says Sig’s wouldn’t have survived without his supportive wife. “It started and it kept going because of her,” he says. “She was the one who was, like, the backbone for me… She just was the support and the push and the drive that kept me going when I wanted to give up.”

Unfortunately, Escalante did have to give up Sundance. “I ended up selling it to the guy that was helping me with it, Kevin [Kotara]. He took that over back in August because – it was just too much.”

Jennifer did not let cancer prevent her from supporting a good cause. She learned about the Run for the Rose, a yearly 5K and family 1K walk/run held by the Dr. Marnie Rose Foundation, named after the Houston pediatric doctor who died from a rare form of cancer in 2002. Launched the following year by Rose’s mother Lanie, the Foundation has given $7 million to brain cancer research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and UTHealth Houston and pediatric health initiatives at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital.

“In the first year of her diagnosis and surgery, she had discovered this walk/run and she goes, ‘We're gonna do this,'” recalls Escalante. The Escalantes and a small group of friends from the Mid Main block took part in the walk. “And, the following year, which is the last year that Jen participated, I told her I was going to be a sponsor and it's just something that Sig’s is going to be a part of, you know, indefinitely.”

Escalante continues supporting the walk/run (which went down last Sunday at Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park) by raising money under a fundraising team known as the “Escalante Express.”

”It's not like there's an actual team race or anything,” he says. “It's just that's the team that you want to be a part of to help raise funds, and you can do it on your own as well.” Initially coming in with a $2,500 goal, Escalante has raised nearly $4,000 so far. Escalante even designed a T-shirt, featuring a 45 insert (“Jen was really into labyrinths,” he said) with a rose in the middle, for donors.

Sig’s Lagoon continues to be a proud sponsor of the Foundation, with Escalante organizing benefit events like the Jeff Buckley tribute show he and his band Xanadudes, Now We Are Here (one of several bands he’s in) did last November. He also got the Foundation designated as the latest charity showcased at the monthly Mid Main First Thursday Block Party.

“I approached it with Lane Schultz, who's the head of the Mid Main First Thursdays,” says Escalante. “And she was immediately like, ’Oh, absolutely.‘“

The Foundation was there at the block party, handing out T-shirts to those who signed up for the Run. They were appreciative of Escalante and other Mid Main folk for aiding in their cause. “The main thing is Thomas, just like Lanie, is taking a sad event and making a positive out of it, really,” says Foundation co-executive director (and Marnie’s sister-in-law) Deborah Rose. “You know, taking the community and taking all his loved ones and getting them involved in brain cancer research.”

As Escalante continues to partner with the Foundation “until Sig’s doesn’t exist anymore,” he appreciates all his friends, from his fellow Mid Main proprietors to his fellow musicians to his fellow record retailers, have been there for him and his children this past year.

“I mean, everyone has reached out,” he says. “You know, all the friendships I have, it's like a family there and they've just, you know – I don't know where I'd be without them right now… It's immeasurable how much it means to us and, and the family and the camaraderie we have there.

“The only way I could repay them,” he adds, “is to be there for them forever.”