Carrying on

For those of you still following, a variety of items:

1. Maureen (O'Donnell) Rosati wrote a wonderful obituary for Rachel, which ran last Thursday in the Chicago Sun-Times and today in the Evanston Review.
2. Sheila is still putting together the "Team Rachel" photo album -- as a tribute now. If you haven't sent your picture to her yet (sheilab320@gmail.com), she'd still welcome it.
3. A number of people have contacted Evan about starting or participating in ovarian cancer fundraisers in Rachel's name. More thoughts are still welcome, and Evan and I will figure out soon what to take on. (Great idea, everyone...)
4. Something I didn't mention last week about the day Rachel passed away: One of the first visitors to the house was Gordon, a fellow St. A's dad who lost his wife last year in a car accident. He kept his two kids out of school to join our kids, and barged right in the house -- even though we'd barely met before. I don't know if he's a routine barger, but it turned out to be really welcome company last Tuesday. It was helpful to talk with him, and we had a beer again last night and went over a few things (including child care decisions and grief counseling). So the "St. A's Widowers Club" will probably keep on meeting every now and then. Our motto: "No More Members -- Please".
5. For everyone suffering from Rachel Withdrawal, here's a story for you: We started dating in the fall of 1989, just after her dad died. We hit it off right away. Before Christmas she told me that she'd already had handkerchiefs monogrammed with an "H" ("John Henry") for her dad, and wanted to know if I thought it would be appropriate for her to give them to someone else. I told her I'd be honored. She smiled sheepishly and said, "They're not for you..."

Pat