News Coverage

Here's a link to the news coverage from yesterday's memorial service. They tortured my last name, but that's okay...


http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1137806146/bclid1143371293/bctid1842739551

New Photo Albums Up

Photo Project - Will be Updated:

Something That Totally Consumed Me

I was stumbling around on the Internet at work the other day, checking my blogs. It's like a big game of dominoes with me and blogs - I start with one, which leads to another, which leads to 4 more and more and more amazing stories of human hope, courage, humor, sadness... I am amazed by this Internet community sometimes...

Well, anyway, I stumbled upon this story of Stephanie & Christian, parents of 4 who were in a terrible plan crash in Arizona about a month ago - they suffered terrible burns. You can read more about the accident and their recovery here: http://www.nierecovery.com/ - a blog written by Stephanie's sister.

There are so many amazing things about this story - the way their families have banded together to get through this, the way the Internet community - a large gathering of many people who don't know each other - has banded together to raise money for their recovery. But, I think what strikes me the most is how at peace with God and life this whole family seems in the face of such huge tragedy. I mean, I'm sure they are grieving and hurting and confused and all those normal human reactions, but they seem to have such an amazing grasp on their Morman faith that they are at peace with the situation. It is truly inspiring to me...

Felix

My great-grandfather is being honored by NYS in October for being a fallen firefighter. In 1945, the steamer he was on was hit by a train on the way to a call - ironically, it was the same railroad company that he worked for full-time. My grandmother was 15 when he died and had 2 younger brothers - Felix (10) and Charlie, my uncle who passed away a few weeks ago, was 5. It's quite interesting how people respond to tragedy differently at different ages - my grandmother, who had to grow up too quickly and take care of her grieving mother and younger brothers, never wanted anything to do with the fire company again. My Uncle Charles saw his father as a hero and spent his whole life in service to different fire departments and fire police. When Charlie died, he got his own hero send-off from the FD - it was beautiful.

Anyway, since Charlie died, I've been in charge of getting the bio and the photo done for the book that the state is doing. Here are photos of my great-grandfather Felix: