memorial

Oct 8 2011

Thanks, Steve

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This week we lost one of the great hearts and minds of our generation. Steve Jobs.
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Sometimes we connect with someone over little things that with others we wouldn’t find significant. Well, here are mine.


I went to his high school, and remember my math teacher telling us about the mischief the two Steves got up to.


Our family had an Apple when we were growing up…. which would not be significant today, but this was (ahem) a REALLY long time ago. We were pretty early adopters as Mac users…so we have fond memories of many, many versions of the Mac. I even got to play with an old NeXT computer at my office.

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Mike gave me an engraved ipod as a wedding present. He went to MacWorld several times and saw Steve make some of his historic announcements.



I recall hearing his Stanford graduation speech when I was working graduation (though of course as staff prepping for a dept. graduation, you never get to see the stadium ceremony. Every year we would tune in to it via the radio broadcast while we set up our chairs and diplomas.)


When Steve got cancer, I connected with him on that level…as my mom got it around the same time as he did. I think part of my grief over him is related to my grief over her.

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I know in someone else these things might not resonate…but in Steve, it made us feel like we knew him a little bit, like he was one of us and we were all in this together.


So today we went by his house and left a tribute. Thanks for all you gave us Steve, we will miss you.

 

By jill • by Jill, Geeky, Time Capsule • 3 • Tags: , , , , ,

Sep 14 2011

Susan’s garden

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This weekend the family met up at Filoli, as has become our custom, to remember Susan on the day that she passed. (It feels odd to me to call her ‘Susan,’  but as only two of us know her as Mommy and one of us as Grandmommy, I will use her most universal name.)

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The weather was warm and the place was full to the brim with visitors, but it was still tranquil and refreshing to walk around the gardens.

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One of our family’s iconic pictures of Susan was taken in the yew grove by the pool.
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Filoli has undertaken renovation of these yews in the past few years, and they have changed dramatically since that photo.

In the latest issue of the Filoli newsletter, the head gardener explained why and wherefore they were so severely pruning the yews. Apparently they were getting so huge they required scaffolding to prune, and were also obscuring views of other parts of the garden (and the distant lake). Very interesting stuff, glad to be privy to the inner workings of our favorite garden.

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By jill • by Jill, Relatives, The Kid, Time Capsule • 3 • Tags: , , , ,

Mar 22 2011

Filoli again

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We’ve been to Filoli three times since it reopened in February. We went on Grandmommy’s birthday with the family, as has become our tradition.

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Looking back through our photos I am reminded how happy Grandmommy was there, despite her illness. (The first photo below is Lucy now…the one next to it is Grandmommy in the same space 3 years ago. )

IMG_0883nice big kitchen!

G'Mommy & Lucy in the cafeLucy & Gmommy

G'Mommy by the pool

How peaceful and relaxing and ‘away from it all’ it is here.

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By jill • by Jill, Relatives, The Kid, Time Capsule • 1 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 22 2010

Obon dance

“Wubie crushed my wand — no magic show for him!”
— Lucy’s response after she waved her ‘magic wand’ (stick with a ribbon) in front of Wubie one too many times (he destroyed it).

We went to the SJ Obon with friends recently and had loads of fun, especially Lucy…she got to dance in her first Bon Odori.

Lucy went to her first Obon fest way back in 2008, when she was still a baby. Grandmommy had suggested we go, she had cut out a clipping from the newspaper for us, and urged us to go that very day (it was a Sunday and we had been visiting her in the hospital). We went and had a lovely time. Shortly thereafter Grandmommy got out of the hospital, so we all went together to the Palo Alto Obon fest. That was about a month before she passed away in September, and it was our last big outing together.

The Obon festival is held to remember ancestors and loved ones who are gone…so it seems appropriate that we keep going in memory of Grandmommy. (Posts from last year’s visits here and here.) If she were still here, she would surely be dancing with us!

By jill • by Jill, Friends, Relatives, The Kid, Time Capsule • 2 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Oct 14 2008

Memorial

Just wanted to let everyone know that we’ve created a new site as a memorial to Jill’s mom Susan (aka Grandmommy), it is in progress, more will be added as the days go by. You can see it here:

http://memoriam.mikeandjill.net/

And just in case you haven’t seen this elsewhere, here is the info on her memorial service this Friday:

http://memoriam.mikeandjill.net/2008/10/service/

thanks to everyone for your support and compassion, we deeply appreciate it.

By jill • by Jill, Relatives • 1 • Tags: , , ,