On Thursday, January 20, 2000 9:57 AM, janet wrote:
>Subject: one year later: joe's story
>hi all
>the pages have been renovated
>but the message is the same
Janet,
I want to thank you for remembering Joe at this time, and also for
posting his story so that others can hopefully learn from it.
It is hard to believe that a year has passed since we lost Joe. It
hasn't been an easy year for some of us and these past few days have
been particularly difficult.
We have all moved on with our lives, and so we must, but the hurt
and the sense of loss of a husband, father, grandfather and dear friend
are still here. And questions still remain, but will go unanswered.
Our support group usually wraps up the season with a social
get-together in June, but last summer we felt we needed to do something
extra for Joe. One couple volunteered to host a pig roast (sorry,
Hilary) in August for the get-together, and out of that was born the
idea of asking for contributions which Joe’s wife, Donna, could donate
for Parkinson's research.
We decided we wanted to make it a happy event - a celebration of
Joe's life.
As then co-leader of the group, I was asked to say a few words about
Joe, so I'm including a few excerpts from that time...
"A little about Joe: He was kind of a nut --- a happy guy who loved
life and loved people.
He was Mr. Fix-it. If it was broken, he could fix it. If it wasn’t
broken, he wanted to know how it worked. He often joked that he had to
know how to fix things because Donna broke everything she touched.
Joe worked at GM Diesel, and one day, to get a rise out of Donna, he
drove a tank home at lunch time. As it turned out Donna wasn’t home,
but all was not lost -- the neighbours were amused, to say the least.
Joe loved cars and ten years ago he co-founded the Forest City Ford
Club, which is still going strong today. It’s a family-oriented
club, -- not ‘just a club for the guys.’
For years Joe looked for a ‘68 Shelby and finally found one. Donna said
that when Joe came home from work, he would go into the garage and say,
“Hi honey, I’m home,” --- before he came in to speak to her.
Eventually Joe sold the Shelby, but later he bought a bright red, ‘91
Mustang convertible. One day I heard a - vroom, vroom, vroom - and I
thought, what the heck is that noise? I opened my front door to see Joe
sitting in his Mustang with the top down and a big silly grin on his
face.
I think that’s how we should remember him. That’s what Joe would
want..."
Donna donated the money that was raised to Dr. Jon Stoessl, Joe’s
former neurologist, who is now doing Parkinson's research at the
University of British Columbia.
Again, Joe's family and Al and I want to thank all who helped us
through very difficult times.
Sincerely,
Judith
~~~~
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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