For Andy...and for DU...

[fleabert]

With the death of every friend I love...a part of me has been buried...but their contribution to my being of happiness, strength, and understanding remains to sustain me in an altered world.

-Helen Keller

What's important is not the years in your life, but the life in your years.

-Anonymous

May we all be inspired by Andy's life, happiness, strength, and understanding. Rest in peace.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4046336&mesg_id=4046336
>our Andy lost his fight tonight {july 7, 2005} at 9:27 pacific time<

[NMMNG]

1. Beautiful

:grouphug:

[drhilarius]

2. Just a thought...

I don't know if heaven and hell are places you go, but I am certain they are places you can leave behind you. Heaven being the life you leave, in memories, mementos, actions, friends- it is the greatest gift you can leave the people you love; it is the world slightly better for your having been in it.

I didn't know Andy well, or, perhaps, as well as one can know someone in the medium. But one can see heaven here in the people he has touched, in this outpouring of grief from people already exasperated from a sad day.

In his own way, Andy showed me heaven was possible here on earth, that idea of heaven. Here was a man who so touched people that strangers worked together to help him out- because he was a friend, a compatriot, or, most of all, a human being.

So as everyone copes with their grief, always remember that brief, luminous heaven of which, for a moment, we were all a part, and know, as Dylan Thomas put it, "death shall have no dominion".

RIP.

[fleabert]

3. More than just a thought, a lovely thought, and thank you.

I didn't know him well, but I also was moved and touched by those that did. I felt, as I went thru the raising of funds and the surgery, and the war with the naysayers, and the recent setback that must have led to this result, that I knew Andy. It also opened my own, very fresh, wounds from losing a close friend/family member to cancer less than two years ago.

your words are very kind, and very comforting, thank you.

[donheld]

4. Why are you talking about him in past tense

Has he passed away?

[housewolf]

6. Yes - about 9:30 Thurs night n/t

[fleabert]

8. I am sorry, I should have referenced the announcement in my OP...

I will try to do that. I just reacted.

[donheld]

5. OMG i'm so sorry to learn of this - God rest his soul!

:cry: May he fight for us on the other side.

[EFerrari]

7. fleabert

I imagine Andy really pissed because there's so much he wants to do. But I also imagine him really relieved to be out of that body that was sheer hell for him.

In my culture, when people pass, that just means you can't see them. It doesn't mean, not at all, that they're not with you and still doing what they do.

We have in no way heard the last from Mr. Andy Stephenson.

:hug:

[fleabert]

11. I think you are correct.

and I hope we both are, he was a good man.

[6000eliot]

9. I didn't want to start a thread,

because I didn't know Andy, may he rest in peace. But I did think of this poem by Emily Dickinson.


Death sets a thing significant
The eye had hurried by,
Except a perished creature
Entreat us tenderly

To ponder little workmanships
In crayon or in wool,
With "This was last her fingers did,"
Industrious until

The thimble weighed too heavy,
The stitches stopped themselves,
And then 't was put among the dust
Upon the closet shelves.
A book I have, a friend gave,
Whose pencil, here and there,
Had notched the place that pleased him,--
At rest his fingers are.

Now, when I read, I read not,
For interrupting tears
Obliterate the etchings
Too costly for repairs.

[fleabert]

10. That is wonderful.

if it makes you feel better, I didn't 'know' him either, but he touched my heart all the same.

[Melodybe]

12. Right on, what beautiful passages! Thanks for posting them.

I didn't know Andy but when he took ill and all of the Andy threads started popping up, I immediately learned what a great guy and a great American he was.

I was praying for him, and at the very least I'm proud to have someone like him looking down on us. Lord knows we need someone up there to put a word in for us.

For all of those that knew Andy here and his friends and family, I offer my heartfelt condolences.

RIP Andy :patriot:

[6000eliot]

13. He was doing the work of the angels.

And now he's with them.

[OneBlueSky]

14. I have this image of Andy storming the Pearly Gates . . .

and demanding "Will you PLEASE do something about George W. Bush?!?!" . . .

Rest in Peace, Andy . . . your work will go on . . .

[fleabert]

16. me too. when I found out, I sent up a thought to him...

'please say something to everyone about Shrub! Start bugging them to get change a rollin'! We're ready!"

[Darth_Kitten]

15. Beautifully put.

:cry:

Rest in Peace, Andy. You are loved and remembered.

[fleabert]

17. thank you. It was so shocking to find this out last night...

he will be missed.