Funny morning. Last night was the home visiting hours for Sam. The folks from Giffords brought Sam’s body here around 2. As I helped carry Sam’s coffin in to the house, my shirt got causght on the door and tore a bit.There’s an old Jewish custom of tearing your clothes while in mourning.  I took it as a cool sign of Sam  We had some quiet time with him until about 3 when people started showing up. The house was packed from about 3:30  until about 10:00 . There weere still people filtering in around midnight. By our quick counts of the guestbooks we had more than 800 folks come by to pay there respects to Sam. It was unlike anthing any of us expected. It was sad  and cool at the same time. It felt so great to be around so many folks who loved Sam. We loved  hearing so many stories of what a great kid Sam was.  The whole thing felt more like a party than a funeral. There were many kids in and out of the house… music and food everywhere. I was surprised how easy the kids found it to go in and ‘talk’ to Sam   There was just about as much laughing as there was crying.
   I was also amazed at how many folks from IBM drove or flew up from New York  to pay their respects. My friends at IBM have beenr eally wonderful to us duing this tough time.. you really can see that the company has a great soul when things like this happen.
   We finally had the house mostly clear at about 1:30 this morning. Several of Max’s friends sayed over with him. They slept in the room with Sam. We all slept well. At about 8 this morning the folks from Giffords came to take Sam to be cremated. We came togethr as a family and figure out what we wanted to go with him. We all wrote letters, tossed in guitar picks, cans of red bull, pictures,  and other things special to Sam. (You wonder what an archeologist in the future would make of the stuff )  We carried Sam out of the house and together watched him drive away for the last time.. I’ll never forget how that felt….      After a few quiet minutes life started to return to the house.. frends came over, food was cooking, music was back… life goes on… remarkably…  
    One interesting sidebar.. .in the continuing saga of electrical distubances around Sam’s death, the internet and phones all freaked out a few minutes after he left. All calls to the repair center give a ‘all circuits are busy’ recording.. (I’m typing this using my phone as a modem. )  I figure it’s just Sam doing his thing…
   We love you Sam.. we miss you so much

-jc