It’s 8PM-ish on Tuesday night and I’m in LaGuardia Airport. I came down for the day to attend a meeting in Somers NY. Somers is one of IBM’s corporate sites so there are folks there from all over the company. It’s always cool to walk around there and see who you see. Today I ran into friends from Israel, Japan NY, and Minnesota. All but one of them had heard about Sam’s death. I’m always amazed at how far this news has traveled. I’ve been around IBM so long and know so many people around the company that it feels like an extended family to me. Everyone is so touched by and so caring about our situation. One thing I find very hard to do in a work situation s to manage the transitions in a conversation from the topic of Sam.. which I love and need to talk about.. to any other topic… like work. There is no segue that works and it makes people feel so awkward. I wish I could help them. I’ve always tried very hard to put people at ease in a conversation.. now it’s so hard. This is just one of the many differences that I have to get used to in this new universe.
I got a chance to talk about some of these differences this morning with another IBM-guy, Craig from the Boston area. Craig is a friend of my friend Delia. He was going to be in Burlington for a meeting today. We’d hoped to meet up while he was in town, but the schedules didn’t work out, so we talked while he drove to Vermont and I drove to Somers. I wanted to talk to Craig because I knew that he too had lost a child. Craig’s beautiful five year old daughter, Amilia, was killed in a gas explosion at the family’s summer home 3 years ago. The explosion was caused by faulty repairs on the homes gas dryer. I found it really hard hearing about another family’s tragedy like this. My own pain around Sam’s death has made me more sensitive to other peoples suffering. We spent a long time talking about our kids, our families, and our path through grief and healing. We also talked about how different our lives had become. Craig and four of his friends are in the process of forming an organization to help grieving fathers called ‘fathers-forever’. The idea is to create a support network for men who have lost sons or daughters. It sounds like it would be a wonderful resource. Craig also told me that he and his family were able to get a law passed in New Hampshire to help prevent tragedies like theirs. You can read their story at http://www.amiliaslaw.org/ It was great connecting with Craig.. I hope to meet him next time I go down to Boston.
As I’m sitting here typing, my brother Billy just called from Bordeaux France. He’s over there doing his first human tests on a new medical device that he designed and developed. It’s 3 AM there but he couldn’t sleep so he called. I love talking to Billy. He just told me that he stuck a SamStone in the city’s 600 year old Cathedral. I love hearing that. We talked for over an hour.., glad I don’t have to pay that phone bill.
OK, looks like our plane is finally boarding. I’m eager to get home. Today’s trip was worth it. The meeting I came down for turned out to be productive and fun.. What’s more, my good friend Willow gave me a cake in thanks for making the trip down.. I’m sitting here in the airport staring at the cake deciding whether I should eat it all myself or bring it home to Diane, Max and Gabe… What would you do Sam ? G’nite
-jc
Ps. Here’s a great picture that our friend Bill took of Sam then doctored in Photoshop..I love this picture. I miss him so much ….
