REST IN AWESOME, ESTHER!
(August 3, 1994 - August 25, 2010)

“Hank, as you know, before I wrote books, I worked as a chaplain at a children’s hospital and when I was there, my supervisor always used to tell me ‘John, don’t just do something –– stand there.’ We all want to do something to mitigate the pain of loss, or turn grief into something positive to find a silver lining in the cloud, but I believe there is real value in just standing there –– being still, being sad, bearing witness to Esther’s life, and allowing ourselves to be transformed by it. Esther talked to me about that when I saw her a couple months ago in Boston; she talked about how she believes that the dead live on in the memory and the lives of those they have touched.”