Busy day in Cambridge… Had an early morning meeting at MIT and then gave a talk for my friends at Watson Health… I have so much respect for those guys. I was glad to be able to give something back to them

We had a recognition party today for the IBM Cambridge lab and then a lab wide lunch. It was great to see everybody all in the same place. It’s a really nice group of people. There was a set of speed talks and Hendrik used a beautiful gong to tell people when it was time to stop

Late afternoon I left Cambridge and drove out to Sudbury where the annual Christmas party for my friends in fathers forever. Fathers forever is a group of dad’s with had children who have died. I met them through my friend Craig Luhrmann who used to live in Boston. I’ve been at several parties with these guys and it’s always good to get together. Even though it is a terrible thread that binds us together , we have many other things in common… It’s great group of people. We spent a lot of time talking about our families and kids living and dead.

It was a fun evening… And I don’t say that lightly. There were some hard parts. Seeing everybody’s pictures they had brought choked me up

I FaceTimeefour mutual friend Craig and he joined in

We all then gathered around the table and… Let the Hanukkah candles… Which is a little funny because Hanukkah is over by about a week… And very few of us are Jewish. But it gave everybody a chance to tell a story about their child. It was very moving. Lots of warm memories. I told the story of having all three kids and swinging them around to Grateful Dead music and the time I threw Sam up in the air and forgot to catch him.

I stayed a long time… I got to talk to most of the people there and hear their stories. About their child… How he or she died…How they and their family How are you doing. Manish repeating themes… But no two stories alike.

It was particularly interesting for me to hear what people had done and memories of their child… Lots of creative things. My friend Stephan made a claim cup for each of the 365 days after his son Jared died

I was grateful to be there even though it was such a sad thing that brought us together

Nite all, nite Sam

-me