Betsy's Words

Thank you all for coming to help us honor Stuart.

Even as a child, Stuart was a “go to” kind of guy. He was the kid who would take things apart just for the joy of putting them back together and truly - he could fix anything. Our Mom tells a great story of when a neighbor called our house saying that they were having a problem with their garage door. Apparently it was stuck halfway. They wanted Stuart to come take a look at it. My mother asked….., didn’t they mean they wanted Skip (our Dad) to come look at it? The neighbor said noooo……, they wanted Stuart. Stuart was only 10 years old.

What some of you may not know, is that Tom and I bought our first house in Medfield with Stuart and Karen. The four of us felt strongly that we wanted to take an old house and bring it back to life. Stuart always felt that houses had souls, so he began to search for a two family home - in a great town and in TOTAL disrepair. He found a great old farmhouse with broken windows, a bad roof and blankets separating the first and second floors. He convinced us with unfailing optimism that we could rebuild this house. That room by room we would do this….. ourselves .So we did. We lived in that house for four years, until our families started to outgrow it. I believe that is when Stuart decided he had found his calling while the other three of us knew our talents lay somewhere else.


We have found throughout Stuart’s illness, many reasons to be grateful….

We have always known in our family that every day is a gift. We were given the opportunity to truly live that for 7 months with Stuart.
We are grateful for the incomparable love pouring from extended family and friends.

When Stuart first entered the hospital, there were pumpkin breads, soups and meals left on Karen and Stuart’s porch meant to sustain our family throughout long hospital stays.
There were many flowers sent to remind all of us that we are loved and supported, cards and letters, endless phone calls all with words of love, understanding, encouragement and support.

We are grateful for Stuart’s doctors and nurses who worked with us for long hours both in the hospital and on the phone helping our family understand, cope and make decisions that were ALWAYS…. the best for Stuart.

We are grateful that Stuart was given the time to go home from the hospital on Alison’s birthday in time for Christmas. Grateful for Easter by the ocean in Plymouth with our whole family and Stuart feeling strong. We were all thrilled when Stuart and Karen, with the help of several wonderful friends, were given the opportunity to get to Antigua for a few days and were grateful to get him back home again safely.

In Stuart’s final weeks, we were again given unimaginable support with loving friends who came to visit with Stuart and our family so that he would NEVER be alone.

One quiet afternoon in January Stuart and I talked about what it meant to live every day to the fullest. He said if you’d asked him that before his illness, he would have said….. to travel endlessly all over the world. Since his illness….. he felt very differently. On any given weekend he would normally be busy doing any one of the hobbies he enjoyed. If someone had just dropped in to visit – he would have been happy to see them, but felt his weekend time was interrupted…so much to do you know…. now…. in the midst of a terminal illness, he was grateful for every dear friend and family member who took time out from their busy day to come and spend time visiting with him. He said THAT was living every moment to the fullest………….