tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4283165903588137109.post1433458741601886829..comments2023-09-25T02:18:45.464-07:00Comments on Sad-DADD: Another Blow On The BruiseSteven Elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05122956533823331112noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4283165903588137109.post-66738906296254793592010-02-08T16:12:27.060-08:002010-02-08T16:12:27.060-08:00Andrew, I guess I'm not too good at following ...Andrew, I guess I'm not too good at following the comments left on the blog. I just discovered this one today, Feb. 8, 2010. Thank you for taking the time to write. I can't tell you how much Jill and I will both treasure your words. It means a lot to us that you remember Rachel and that you still learn from the relationship you had with her. We miss her and we miss having her friends, like you, around. All the best to you, Andrew. And thank you again for the thoughtfulness of your expression....SteveSteven Elliotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05122956533823331112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4283165903588137109.post-8606544668662964582009-11-24T12:10:12.748-08:002009-11-24T12:10:12.748-08:00"The unreal is more powerful than the real. B...<i>"The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because it's only intangibles, ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on. If you can change the way people think. The way they see themselves. The way they see the world. You can change the way people live their lives. That’s the only lasting thing you can create."</i> - From the novel <i>Choke</i> by Chuck Palahnuik<br /><br><br />It's not often that I get into a vehicle and DON'T think about Rachel and all of your family. I can still recall, so vividly, the years I knew Rachel, as well as the memorial service held at our high school. I remember the emotional overload that day, and especially the phone call from Erik the morning after the accident. Yet, even after the closure, that sense that it all still seems so unreal to me lingers a bit. So, I take it upon myself to try to tell Rachel's story to as many people as I can. I've seen people, having never even met her, so affected by the story, and I ask myself, "Why?". What is it that makes this person, or people, so able to understand where I'm coming from? Where the people who knew and loved her are coming from? I am sure that one reason could be a shared experience, but I like to think that it is very easy to get the point across to people what a wonderful person she was.<br /><br><br />I agree with what you wrote, about good or bad choices. I could not have said it better myself. As I grow and learn, I notice many unsatisfactory things about people, and even about myself. What keeps me thinking positively is that I know people ARE capable of making good choices, among the many bad choices made by ourselves and others. Rachel has shown me this. Even at times when the two of us weren't getting along, I always came out of it having learned something, more often than not directly from the way she handled herself. I'd be hard pressed to meet a person as influential to me as she was, and still continues to be. You should be very proud. Even after her life has come to an end, she shows up every so often to lend a helping hand, and that says alot about the family that raised her.<br /><br><br />I am very glad to have met Rachel, as well as Erik, your wife, and yourself. I hope you all are doing well, and that the cowardly person responsible for her death, for every mile she treks avoiding the consequences of her decision, starts to slowly feel the weight of the pain suffered by all of us that were so fortunate to know your wonderful daughter.<br /><br><br /> Much love,<br /> Andrew WilkinsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com