Goodbye, Kia-Safe Journey, Randy

Hello World Family,
Falcon here. This is probably the toughest post I have ever written. I must say goodbye to two very special people who left our world this week, and I wanted to tell you a little about them.

One, I have never met; the other, Dove and I had the pleasure of meeting. One was taken by an unspeakable act of violence; the other by an unspeakable cancer. One was my age, a college professor, husband, father of young children; the other was just beginning her adult life, a Salvation Army volunteer, and a mother. Both were special not because of how they died, but because of how they lived. The fact that their spirit has left us to go to a better place is our loss, not theirs.

Kia was a mommy. She was about to have a son on July 30th. She was murdered for that child: tied up, cut across her abdomen, and suffocated. She was only 18 years old. She was happy, helpful, generous of nature, and compassionate by every description I have seen about her. She was murdered by a woman (probably with some help, charges pending) who wanted a baby very badly...for years. She had been in jail before for cutting one woman and trying to steal her baby, and another time attempting to steal a baby from a hospital years ago. The dysfunctional environment that surrounded that woman's situation that brought her no real, permanent help but only enabled her obvious mental illness contributed to this horrible event. Kia was going to help many people every day with her smile and kindness. Falcon prays that in her loss, more will follow her lead: be kind to others, and help when and where you can.

Kia won't get to raise her son. It is the saddest of outcomes that his mother did not survive this vicious attack. I hope that his family never forgets to tell him every day how kind she was, and how she volunteered in her community. She will be watching him from Heaven, that I am sure.
Love never dies.

Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Many of you have watched his "last lecture' video on You Tube, or read his book, "The Last Lecture." Randy created the Alice computer program designed to help kids with their computer skills. He gave away the software to Home School students like my daughter, Dove. I lectured occasionally at CMU, so I saw Randy now and then, and I saw the impact he was having on youngsters who needed more concrete, advanced computer skills, and his students at CMU.

Never did I imagine how many people's lives he would touch with his lecture. The very technology he celebrated helped to include millions of people on his journey to honor his own life, even during the sunset of his life.

Randy was fun, and he was also poignant. He found a way to channel the horror of his illness into extremely constructive areas, like celebrating what is good about living.

So today, in mourning the loss of these two special spirits, let's also remember how lucky we are to have the lives we have. There is still time...for us. Let's respect life more, let's find a way to include more genuine joy in our lives. That comes from living well...in thought, word, and deed.

Live well.
Falcon and Dove