The last three days thinking of Sam has been hard, fun, sad… A little of everything.

Thanks to everyone who came to the toast for Sam last night… It was really special for us. Hope you enjoyed it as well

I’m now easing into Thanksgiving week… And like everyone else it’s going to be a different kind of week and we’ve ever had. I’m taking the whole week off and just trying to devote myself to projects around the house And in my shop.… I’ve got lots of cool things going and I’m looking forward to just kind of bathing in that

One thing we’re doing this week is climbing Bolton Every day. No particular reason… we started yesterday with our Sam hike… And decided to keep it going. I just am enjoying the exercise of hiking up that mountain is often as we can.… It’s also the only way to safely get in the woods during Hunting season

This morning we took off around 8 AM and took the lift line up wilderness. The last bit was a very steep scramble. Really nice



Tomorrow in the next couple of days rain or snow… Let us know if you’re heading up there too. You may see us

Nite all, nite Sam

-me

Today is the day we mark Sams passing .

It’s the day he helped save the lives of 4 people through the organs he donated from his strong body

Please support organ donation in any way you can

It’s a day we usually mark with a hike up Bolton and a potluck here at home . This year we had to adapt to the covid restrictions .

First summer came by to give us some new sam stickers

Diane , Kyle and went up to hike Bolton . There we ran in to Krista, Caroline and (surprisingly) my old friend Jeff from Colorado who’s now friends with Krista . We had a really nice socially distanced hike up.

We called the boys and set off some smoke bombs

No potluck today.. but we did the next best thing .. we had a zoom call to toast sam. We had 73 folks dial in . It was so nice seeing everyone

Shawn had pulled together all his Sam stuff to share

 

Jill played and sang for us.. a really beautiful song 

we even had some furry friends 

We looked at pictures of Sam… Watched a couple of movies (I’ll post them)… And heard stories for everybody.

It was supposed to have lasted half an hour… And lasted an hour and a half. We were happy, grateful and tired …. It was a fun challenge trying to keep that many people engaged and talking on a zoom call

Thank you everyone for coming. I think it’s so good to come together to remember someone we love… And remember that we love each other

Thank you Sam for bringing us together again and again

Nite all, nite Sam

-me

 today is the day I always think of when this time of year comes around. By this time 14 years ago we were down in Florida saying goodbye to Sam. It was a surreal day. ‘Diane and I both slept in the hospital room.. In someways… I will never forget that day… In some ways I have trouble letting myself remember it.

Thinking about that always makes me wonder how I’ll feel when this day comes around. Today I felt strong. I felt great deal of love and gratitude for Sam for all the people who have been there for us these last 14 years.

I was trying to find a way to spend some time with Sam. Last night I stayed up very late looking through hundreds of tiny video clips on one of our old computer directories. All of the files had names like “unnamed 1234″.avi” Somewhere from Max, some work from GabÉ, some work for me… But then there were some from sam. I ended up finding about 30 little clips. I so loved watching and listening to him talk… He was so funny 🙂

Today I went for a run and decided to listen to music that Sam loved or reminded me of Sam.

Here’s a playlist of sam’s memories

I started with “here you me” by Jimmy Eat World. It was a song that was popular when Sam died and was the soundtrack to the memorial video that one of his friends made… I think it was Sumner. Every time I listen to it… Even now it makes me cry. Take a listen. https://www.songfacts.com/facts/jimmy-eat-world/hear-you-me

I listened to these from Sams playlists during my run

• “Party hard” By Andrew WK
• “Du hast” by Rammstein
• ” Forget me knot” By serge Tarkien
• “”Leyenda” Played by Andrés Segovia …Sam was an excellent classical Guitar player and had just mastered this piece right before he passed. This guitar teacher James played it at the memorial service http://www.samstones.org/music/05%20Asturias.mp3
• “Lithium” by Nirvana. As sung by the Mmu choir at Sam’s Memorial http://www.samstones.org/music/10%20Lithium.mp3

My favorite song today was

• “Song to my brother”… By Max Cohn… He wrote it for Sams memorial service. Please listen to it http://www.samstones.org/music/04%20Song%20for%20My%20Brother.mp3

You can Hear all the music that sam’s friends played at his memorial service at this link

http://samstones.org/WordPress1/?page_id=72

Hearing that music and hearing Sam on those recordings is brought me a lot of peace today. Even though I’m sad… Really sad…. I’m so happy to have known that boy… And loved him.

I still do

Night all, nite sam

-me

ps. Remember.. we’re having a virtual toast for sam 9-9:30 PM EST tonight.. Please join us if you can ! https://fb.me/e/1RHEP70Nb

I’m standing in the exact spot where we got the call 14 years ago tonight that Sam would not survive .

I’ve thought of that moment every day or the past 14 years . We miss our beautiful boy so Much. So fun.. so nice .. so much great energy .

Time has changed so many things in these past 14 years ..our love for Sam does not change . I still talk to him every day

And We can still hear him in our hearts

Our fiend Madeline just found this great picture of Sam and Chai. (Thanks Madeline !)

It really captures them both

Every year on this night I listen to the last phone message sam

Left for us on that day . He was so happy .. doing what he loved .,

http://www.samstones.org/music/sammsg_v3.mp3

His last words

To us were ‘ love you, bye!’

Love you, bye my son

Love you bye !!!

Nite all, nite sam

-me