I just googled Eric. That was depressing. Instead of finding Harvard graduate or law review at UVA, I found an article in the Las Vegas paper about his death. I found an obituary on the McKinsey website. I found a blog about the race after which he died with a forward extending condolences.
I got a letter today from old friends of my parents who knew Eric when he was in high school in Bangkok. They have a son who is now a freshman at Harvard and that made them think about Eric and look him up. That’s how they found out. They then found my blog (hi) and sent a beautiful letter to my parents and to me. I wanted to see what they found when they went looking for Eric and that’s what started today’s adventure.
I still don’t think of Eric’s story as over. I still have trouble connecting the words death and died and gone forever with him. I wish the internet had a longer memory. I wish his happy moments and his high achievements were the first things you found when you went looking. In our quest for the most up to date information that will not happen. The first thing you see when you google him is that he is dead. And that’s about the last thing you will find too. And that doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Liz,
ReplyDeleteEric's story is not over as you prove every day with your blog and, after 366, prove in the way you live your life.
This reminds me of the passage in Elizabeth Edward's book when she talks about the computer lab she established in honor of her son Wade--(who died at 16)--at the school he attended.
It's not my place to ask, but your post prompts the question--is there something (besides the blog and the book it could become) that you'd see as an appropriate and renewable project (like a scholarship, or award, or race, or community center) that you'd see as meaningful in keeping that story going?
Sarah I had not thought about that. Thanks for making me think. As always you are one step ahead of me. :)
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