The past week

Good day everyone,

Its been just over a week since Andy left us. Still surreal, still hard, I imagine it will be for a period of time for everyone.

Last Wednesday, after doing the planning, Jen, Ann and I went through all the pictures on Andy's computer. This was sad, because we know that they're won't be more pictures, but also fun, and while it was tough to see some, many made us smile and laugh about about a lot of good times. We ended up pulling out 230 or so photos, and I also went through my laptop and found roughly 35 more. Jen printed them all out, and laid roughly 180 of them out on 6 boards. Ann and my Aunt and Uncle helped glue them all on there on Friday afternoon, and we put the boards and remaining photos in the funeral home.

We had the viewing on Friday and the service on Saturday. Both days were emotionally exhausting, both days had packed attendance at the funeral home. We are grateful for the turnout on both days; while not surprised by the kind words and remembrances of Andy, it helped us in our grieving to hear so many good (and some outrageously funny) things about him.

It was great to see folks who had come in from all over, whether flying in from LA, or driving up from NJ or arriving from the local area. It was also nice to see some old high school friends that I had not seen in 18+ years (now I am dating myself :) and to introduce work, school and college friends to Jen and the parents.

I gave a eulogy that I did not know how I would deliver. Other folks spoke as well, it was an emotional service for all.

Our cousin Sara, who is very close to Andy, wrote a nice letter to him and published it on her blog California Stars: Dear Andy. I cried when I read it, its a testament to their having fun traveling and growing closer together.

Saturday after the service we had folks back to a local Italian restaurant. Again, it was nice to say hi to everyone, and thank you for coming out to spend time with Jen, my parents and I. We only wish we had more time to catch up with folks and that it wasn't under these circumstances.

We've had a lot of folks contact us expressing wishes to donate to help Jen and Nicholas, and to help fund Nicholas' college education. Thank you for thinking of us and expressing this wish to help. Jen and I are meeting with a financial counselor on Monday in order to setup an account that she could use to help with the cost of raising Nicholas, and to roll the account and an existing 529 college savings plan under a trust that had been setup by Andy for Nicholas.

We'll also be talking to charities about giving people the opportunity to make a donation to an "official" charity in memory of Andy that will focus on Lung Cancer, as this was one of Andy's wishes.

I expect that I'll publish all that information within a week or so, after all the paperwork is done and everything is established. Thank you for your patience as we setup these avenues to help in Andy's memory.

We're also going to make a book for Nicholas, and for us, with photos of Andy and stories about him. So - if you have a good story, jot it down. Jen and I will send out information about how we'll collect them and include them in the book.

Thank you again, to all those that came, to friends and relatives that helped us with this, and to friends that could not be here but sent wishes and thoughts to us.

Tim