{"id":1088,"date":"2007-11-23T05:23:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-23T09:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/2007\/11\/23\/thursday-night-thanksgiving\/"},"modified":"2007-11-23T05:23:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-23T09:23:00","slug":"thursday-night-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/2007\/11\/23\/thursday-night-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday night -Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Today, another milestone. Our first.. no actually.. our second Thanksgiving without Sam. .. And, like all these milestones, it was not as I imagined it would be. We actually had a very fun and peaceful time. There were some very sad parts… but as I say often.. there are sad parts to all our days now.. every one of them.. <\/p>\n

The day began aith an 8:30 ‘fun’ run.. (nothing is truly fun at 8:30 in the morning \ud83d\ude42  This one was organized by our firends Dwayne and Maureen in memory of their son Jarred who died on this date, Thanksgiving 6 years ago.. Today was also Jarred’s birthday.  The Race today was to raise money for the Jarred Williams Foundation   which helps kids with brain cancers and their families… About 100 runners showed up this morning in the 32 degree drizzle.. it was actually a good day to run..   Maureen was there welcoming the runners <\/div>\n

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Our neigbors francis and Ginney were there<\/p>\n

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Max came and met up with is old buddy Augest

Dwayne Williams and his daughter Danielle  welcome the runners and describe the course.
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Diane signes us up… Diane and Max opted for the 5K walk I signed up for the 10K run.
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All of us lined up and ready to go… get ready, get set…..<\/p>\n

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I was tag number 93..I talked to Sam for the whole run. I came in in the middle of the 10K runners pack.. not my best time, but one of my proudest.
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I was finishing my run about the same time that Diane was finishing her walk..we finished in the drizzle cold and wet and feeling good.   We got home to find that one of our new nifty mousetraps had worked.. Here’s our first hostage…
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I escorted him (or her ?) across the bridge and let him out.. I offered him a cracker.. but he wanted nothing of it..

I came back to the house to find Gabe awake. He and Diane were eating soem of the crepes i’d made. I abstained.. I was saving myself for dinner. <\/p>\n

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Our freind Carl was over.. here he is looking demonic.
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Around 2 we all bundled up and drove up to teh Townsends.  It brought back powerful memories to me. Exactly one year ago today we flew in from Florida after saying goodbye to Sam…as soon as we got home we drove up to the Townsends where all of Sam’s friends had gathered. we all looked at pictures and cried together.. I will never forget that feeling of collective  saddness and the overwhelming love  of Sam’s friends that night.   <\/p>\n

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Today felt very different.. The kids were already at work eating when we arrived.. <\/p>\n

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As always at the Townsends, te food was amazing in all aspects, taste, variety, quantity and display.. It’s always a gourmet experience up there. <\/p>\n

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Our friend Jen artfully arrainged her plate. They even had lots of veggie stuff for us.
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We got to meet their new pet rabbitt, peter.. He kept coming over to check us out as we ate.
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I kept noticing the gloves and coats on the mitten rack (which the girls and I made).. They looked like tow people hugging.
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Our friends Hannah, Dave and Adah  were there.. Hannah’s due in 4 weeks. I liked the way her pregnant belly looked in a Sam shirt.
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Deb’s freind Eric was running a contest to see who ate the most. We all had to weigh in. I think the winners were either Nate or Marie K. I think they ate soemthing like 4 pounds.. I ate a mere 1 pound..   and was quite satisfied. .
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Afterdinner, Tim plugged in teh Karaoke .. It was really fun watching folks sing.. and reading the words to soem of these songes.. (Did you every look at the words to teh song ‘Drink Wine’ ? .. or ‘Looking out my back door ‘ ?…   pretty strange)
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Tim has ana amazing voice.. who knew ?!
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The kids gathered to watch us adults make fools of ourselves..
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Adah got into it too !<\/p>\n

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The music drove Peter the rabbit back into his cage.. which has a Sam button prominantly displayed. <\/p>\n

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As you can here.. teh content and delivery varied widely !<\/p>\n

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At about 6 Kevin showed up.. Today was his brithday. Sam’s death last year really tool awayKevin’s birthday.. we wanted to make sure that he had a proper party this year.. we’d gotten a cake forhim.. He seemed happy and surprised.. He’s such a good kid !<\/div>\n

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Diane wearing her DJMSG t shirt. We made these many years ago. I treasure mine.
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As I was sitting there listening to the singing I came across a great set of articles in National Geographic about the human heart.  It had a big thing on transplant. Today was the day that Sam became an organ donor. I’d ask you all to take a moment when you can to discuss organ donation with your family and friends..<\/p>\n

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The article talked about what a wonderful organ the heart is.. and how much it can withstand. My firends, I’m here to tell you that it is truly amazing what the human heart can withstand. The past year we have been subjected to the very worst thing that can happen to a family.. and survived.. Every day is hard.. yet every day  we’re a little stronger.. <\/p>\n

Today is Thanksgiving and I can say that despite our tragedy, I am truly thankful for what I have.. I have two wonderful kids.. Gabe and Max.. I have a wonderful and loving wife,  Our extended families are all doing well.  and love us and support us.  We have the most  wonderful and supportive community and group of friends.. and we live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. .. and we have Sam’s memory and his wonderful wonderful spirit deep inside us and helping us be strong. <\/p>\n

I want to wish you all a happy and thoughtfull Thanksgiving. Recognize what you have in this life.. and pass on your good fortune  <\/p>\n

We love you Sam…<\/p>\n

-me<\/div>\n

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Today, another milestone. Our first.. no actually.. our second Thanksgiving without Sam. .. And, like all these milestones, it was not as I imagined it would be. We actually had a very fun and peaceful time. There were some very sad parts… but as I say often.. there are sad parts to all our days … Continue reading Thursday night -Thanksgiving<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}