this one's the toughest

Stevie, just like Elvis, has left the building. She passed peacefully about 11:30, with her hands folded over her chest. What a class act.

A few minutes later, we gave her a royal send-off. There was an unopened bottle of Scotch in her closet. We opened it up and had a toast in her honor, amidst lots of tears. An hour later, something amazing happened. On a cloudless fall day, the sun streamed in her bedroom window and fell on the red bed linens. The entire room turned to a shade of rose. We'd like to think it was Stevie saying, "Thanks, I made it! Love you all and see you soon!"

Stevie's journey is not complete, and there will be additional entries made here. So check back once in awhile. And please try to perform and unexpected act of kindness for someone today in her honor.

We thought the following was appropriate:

"I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white
sails to the morning breeze and starts
for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until at length
she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come
to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says;
"There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"
Gone from my sight. That is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull
and spar as she was when she left my side
and she is just as able to bear her
load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone
at my side says, "There, she is gone!"
There are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad
shout; "Here she comes!"

And that is dying."

--Henry Van Dyke

Bon voyage, Stevie, and Aloha!