Anna Quindlen, writer
Sometimes someone touches your life in just a small way, but their kindness and
spirit is evident in major ways that even if you have not spoken to the person in at least 25 years maybe more you will never forget them.It doesn’t matter that he had no idea how I felt. No one in his family will see this or know the nice memories I have of him. As a dumb kid he talked to me as if I were his equal, even though he was an adult and had served in Vietnam. He took me to a concert at UCLA Royce Hall at the spur of the moment to see something that I don’t recall, but he loved music and was a musician all his life.
Via e-mail I heard he passed away Sunday morning, which made me very sad, much sadder than I expected to feel.
Here’s to keeping your memory, Steve. My deepest sympathies to your immediate family and close relatives.
4 comments:
Sorry for your loss.
Thanks, Jack. I probably should explain that I am referring to my aunt's (through marriage) brother, who has lived on the east coast probably since my late teens.
Ah, sorry. Those people are special, aren't they? We should always treat others with kindness, we never know how deeply it affects them, even small things. I had a girlfriend in school that said one day that she thought I would be a knockout with the boys when I was older. I've never forgotten that, even (or especially) when I'm having a bad hair day. it just made all that teenage angst shrink a little, to think that one day, guys might think I wasn't a fat nerd.
She's a friend of mine on facebook now, just recently reconnected! I told her that, too, how her kindness had stuck from all those years back.
Chandira, I think we are all special to someone outside of immediate family and we have no idea. Maybe that's what makes it special.
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