Hello everyone,

it's Erich again.  Here's the link to the photo/video Callan put together for Jill.  I suppose it's a little on the long side, I guess (about 17 min I think), but it's accompanied by some of the special music she asked for:

https://animoto.com/play/IZ5bqj1VGTVkmIPJNE1mnA

By way of explanation:

1. "Anona", by Otto Totland.  This played on the Spotify "Sleep" rotation, and it came up every couple hours throughout the night as I lay (sleepless) on my cot in Jill's ICU hospital room at UW following her resection surgery.  I was overwhelmed with fear, anxiety, intense love, and a tremendous gratitude that my dear wife was returned to me.  It was a poignant interval, there in that hospital room over those number of days, as Jill experienced an immediate, short-lived relief and then a hard-fought, painful recovery.  Outside of childbirth, I've never admired her strength and spirit more, or felt so deeply the preciousness of the gift of her life.

2. "Be Thou My Vision", sung by Elenyi.  We sang this hymn at our wedding and at Jill's funeral.  Besides deriving from an old Celtic/Irish melody (appealing to Jill's ancestry), it also speaks to our best, how and when, and the verse "Heart of my own heart" perfectly describes the love that we shared.  Perfectly.

3. "Dimming of the Day", sung by Mary Black.  I snuck this one in.  Jill wouldn't know that I used to listen to this song out in the garage in the last months, so she wouldn't see me cry!  It's needlessly sad, but touching, and I "dimly" knew all along how how so very much I would end up missing her...

4. "Humble and Kind", by Lori McKenna.  Jill requested this in one of her several "Memorial" journals (notebooks, journals, and calendars abound in the home of a GBM patient!).  It's sincere, straightforward, and disarmingly true --qualities that Jill valued and sought to reflect.  She loved the stories Lori McKenna sings, and her appreciation of what really constitutes "the good life"; Jill had a good life, and we were all blessed to share it with her.

5. "MLK", by U2.  Jill had requested that the boys, or Callan and his band, perform this song at the funeral/memorial.  It's difficult to replicate, and Callan just didn't feel he could manage it anyway, under the circumstances.  Jill used to sing it to the boys after tucking them in to bed at night.  She always said she didn't have a good voice, but of course your mom singing you to sleep is one of the most beautiful things in the whole world, ever.

The video ends with a clip of Jill showing off jogging around the Edison School track.  At one of our oncology appointments she was told she would never be able to run again.  Well, she took it to heart alright, and --you knew her!-- undaunted, you see what she did with that...!

(They're just phone photos, mostly, and don't come close to capturing her whole person, but I tell you I just smile the whole time I watch.  She's so beautiful.  What a joy.  Lifts my heart, absolutely does.  Hope it does yours, too).

Erich