2005-05-31 - 9:18 p.m.

Farewell, Heidi. Even though you were Dad's first cousin, since you lived in New Jersey, and we in Massachusetts, we didn't see each other often. But those times we did spend together, I'll remember fondly. You were bigger than life, full of love and a positive, abrupt, no-bullshit-taken-or-given personality. You always said what you thought without acrimony - that's just How You Felt. You always impressed me with that. Going to your house was a Big Adventure. It was big, nice, and had a completely different atmosphere from my house. What kind of family didn't have a television in its living room?? It always seemed so odd to me as a kid. Even with no TV in the living room your house always was full of love.

I'm so glad I visited you with Mom this past December. Your wig looked so awesome. Even more awesome was your own hair, growing back after the chemo. So what if you were having short term memory problems...and reminded us of them every ten minutes. :D We could still see the real you, and together we remembered better times. We took pictures to remember the trip by. I hope you enjoyed the prints I sent.

I'm sure the trip to your funeral tomorrow will have its own challenges, with Mom and me picking Dad and Karen up at the airport en route, and then driving down through New York City. You'd laugh and remark about a) the fact that Dad was going, since you really didn't like him, and b) the oddness of the grouping of the car's inhabitants - but we're going to do what we have to to pay our respects.