FROM GOOD OLE UNCLE VICApril 2006
Hello everyone, how are you? Well, winter hung on for as long as it could but spring is finally here. Let's hope it doesn't go immediately to 100 degrees!
The answer to last month's quiz, who invented the aluminum skis and where was he from? Why, the same guy who invented the over-sized tennis racquet, of course, Howard Head, born in Philadelphia but raised right here in Bal'more, Maryland!
This week's quiz: Which is the only conference in the country that does not conduct a post-season tournament to determine it's entry into the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament? Turn your answers in to Lisa, in writing or email- lisa.hemovich@brickbodies.com!
My heart is very heavy. Christine Lowe is gone. She passed away from pancreatic cancer the morning of March 15 at her home in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was 54 years old. Christine married my dear friend John Lowe the same summer I married Lynne, 1978. Her first daughter, Annie, is good friends with my daughter, Vicki. We are the god-parents of her youngest daughter, Caroline. We have watched her middle daughter, Kate, play soccer many times, as we have for all the girls. They have watched our kids play sports as well. She is a fellow Towson Alum like me, John and Lynne. She loved Inspector Clouseau, like all of us. She was a Dulaney High girl, just like Lynne.
They had a celebration of her life at Ravenscroft School in Raleigh where Christine taught high school physical education for 11 years. 750 people showed up. Faculty and staff shared memories of her. The school choir sang. Perhaps the most moving part of the ceremony was her former students reading letters they had written to her in the waning moments of her life telling her how much she meant to them. One said that she was very self-conscious about her singing and that Christine had encouraged her and told her she could do anything she set her mind to do. This same girl went on to sing the national anthem three times at sporting events in college. Others had similar stories.
Although Lynne and I had visited John and Christine many times during her nine-month illness, we could not attend the celebration at Ravenscroft as we were out of town on business. If we were there we would have told the gathering how Christine and John were the best examples we have ever seen of choosing your own attitude. You cannot always choose what happens to you. But you CAN choose how you will react to it. Christine and John chose humor, dignity, compassion and courage. In so doing, they shaped everyone else's attitude as well.
Christine, John and the girls refused to feel sorry for themselves. They refused to accept anyone's sympathy. They chose to be upbeat and optimistic in spite of the circumstances.
Christine was always concerned about everyone but herself. An example of this was when Lynne went down to be with her when she went in for her whipple procedure the day before Labor Day. A whipple procedure is where they remove part of the pancreas and reroute the bowel. As Christine was going in for the surgery she told Lynne "Your main objective is to not leave John's side." Even then, she was thinking of others, in this case, her husband, and not herself.
Christine's character was never more evident than the last time I saw her two weeks before her death. Jimmy Sandusky and I had flown down to Raleigh to see Christine and spend some time with John. We went by the house to visit and then John, Jimmy and I took a Bikram Yoga class (boy, am I tight), went out for beer and pizza (just like old times) and went bowling (that's right, bowling. I won both games but whose counting!). Another old college mate, Warren Hall, drove down from Richmond and joined us for the pizza and bowling. The next morning John was to meet us at our hotel for breakfast. Imagine our surprise when John pulled up at the hotel and Christine got out of the car as well. She laughed with us, ate breakfast with us, visited with us and generally did everything but let us feel sorry for her. Although she was jaundiced because her liver had already shut down, her hair was made, her nails done and her make-up was perfect. Quite frankly, never had she seemed more beautiful. I am convinced that she was trying to pretend that everything was normal so we would not worry about her.
Yes, my heart is heavy but it won't be for long. Christine would not have wanted it to be. She would have wanted me instead to remember the good times. She would have wanted me to remember her eating breakfast with us at that table at the hotel, laughing and carrying on. She would have wanted me to choose my attitude even though I can't always choose what happens to me. And that is what I am going to do.
Semper Fi,
|
