DIED 2009
DEAR MARION, THE PURPOSE of this email is to tell you that my son, a former student of yours and your ex-husband’s, drowned around midnight on August 17 while canoeing under a full moon on Lake Champlain in Grand Isle, Vermont. Earlier that day, he had been man of honor for his sister at her wedding.
The ceremony was absolutely beautiful, outdoors in a little cove on the lake. Afterward, my son, who lived nearby in a cottage with his girlfriend, had invited two friends to spend the night. We planned to drive them home if they had too much to drink, but he hadn’t. He took his job as man of honor seriously. We still asked him to call us when he got home, as parents tend to do.
He called our hotel, I answered, and I told him to enjoy the night with his friends and check out the beautiful full moon. I went to bed thinking all was right with the world. Around 1 a.m. we got the hysterical call from his girlfriend. As soon as she said the boat had capsized, I knew it would not have a good outcome. We drove back the twenty miles, we got lost on the island, Sarah kept calling in tears. When we finally got there, there were lights all over. Ambulance, police, media, helicopter, boats up and down the shoreline . . . the dive team came at daylight.
Today I was trying to remember important people in his life who might want to know about what happened. His two years at Penn State Harrisburg were quite lackluster, except for the two of you, and the man who owned the hot wing place up in the Poconos where he worked. He ended up in Vermont, where he lived with his sister, and became a brewer at Magic Hat, a job that he loved. They loved him too. I hear they are going to bronze his brewing boots and keep them on display at the brewhouse. Marion, I am not sure if you remember my son, but I felt the need to let you know, just in case you do.