Day 1745: Memorial Service

We attended a truly remarkable memorial service today for the husband of our friend and former colleague.  Her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's a few years ago, but he decided at that moment he would not die from the disease.  He stopped taking his heart medicines to hasten his decline and indeed his heart failed in August.  She was comforted that he died on his own terms.

With two months to plan and prepare, their family arranged a moving, heartfelt tribute filled with personal reflections from his sons, friends and family, as well as music and a beautiful video.  Some members of his family escaped from Armenia during the Armenian holocaust of 1915, while others died in the forced march.   His grandfather found his way eventually to Ellis Island in NYC.  Born during the depression in NYC, he was abandoned at two months old and placed in the foster care system.  Despite all the challenges of his early life and service in Korea during the war, he achieved a great deal and built a beautiful, loving, devoted family.

The memorial prompted lots of thought about both the present and future.  What does the future hold for us?  How much time do we have and will it be quality time?

Steve has been running up and down the stairs both tonight and last night, feeding the DVD burner.   Tonight, he finished! 124 DVDs ready for distribution! Hooray!   So, how much time to create the movie, edit and render it, make all the DVDs, run to Orchard Park for a new burner, run to Walmart for more discs and sleeves, and then distribute it?  I have to add up our columns, but I think it will be close to seventy hours.  Doesn't matter.  It chokes me up every time I watch it.

Another gorgeous day ended with a bit of rain which we needed desperately.  We walked a couple miles through town, savoring the warmth and reveling in the glorious colors of autumn.