Family & Friends,

I wanted to thank you all again for your love and support this year. You’ve made a horrible time bearable through your kind words and energy. 

Two things I wanted to share with you: 

1. I traveled to Maui with my immediate family this summer and part of that trek involved honoring John. Back in 1961, John was born to Evelyn and Ernest Jr. on the island of Oahu. While John didn’t spend many years there, upon traveling back to Hawaii in 2006 he connected with the land and the Aloha spirit. We were very lucky to have traveled to Hawaii many times since 2006 with Maui being the island we frequented the most. John’s absolute favorite thing to do in Hawaii was body-surf the waves with the turtles. I kid you not, those turtles would ride the waves alongside John so many times! This trip, I spent every morning on the sea on a longboard (I’m not much of an actual surfer) … and every morning I would be visited by multiple turtles as I paddled along the shoreline. On a rare evening paddle, one turtle stayed long enough to watch the sunset with me. Everything is connected. John’s second favorite thing was to hike the portions of the islands that were still raw and uninhabited – the untouchable shorelines were a favorite. So, with all this in mind, a portion of John’s remains were left in Maui … with the turtles on the west shore and over a cliff on the north shore. The attached picture is one John would have loved and is a marker of that north shore resting location (no turtle pic because those creatures are quick and my camera would not have done them any justice). 

2. 10/10/21 would have been John’s 60th birthday. Please honor him in whatever way works best for you: raise a glass of tasty beer or kombucha, cook a huge pile of vegetables, sit outside in nature, rev up that dirt bike. And if you are reading this after 10/10/21 – pick a day that works for you. 

We can still grieve AND honor those we love – moving through to a time when we smile more than we cry. 

“You can shed tears that he is gone
and you can smile because he has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that he’ll come back
and you can open your eyes and see all he’s left us.
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see him
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember him and only that he’s gone
or you can cherish his memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
or you can do what he’d want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”