Memorial
Place: Scholastic Inc.
555/557 Broadway @ Prince Street
New York , NY
Date: Saturday, June 22, 2002
Time: 11am - 2 pm
All are welcome, but you must contact me to let me know that
you are planning to attend (see below). Please bring a photo
id.
June 12, 2002, New York
It is an awesome responsibility to update any part of Phil's
website without him here to review the content, but it is especially
difficult to update this section. Many people that Phil never
met have been devoted readers of his cancer journal and he
set an incredibly high standard of writing for it as he did
with all of his projects.
Phil's cancer journal is beautiful writing and a tribute to
his incredible spirit. That is why I hesitate to add to it,
even to give the details of his memorial service. But I wanted
to add a few thoughts especially for the people who never met
Phil.
It is one thing to write movingly and inspiringly, but it
is something much more to be able to live up to your words.
In the last year of his life, Phil was tested to live up to
the philosophy he had defined and written about in his four
books and on his website. I, his mother and brothers and his
close friends know that he met and exceeded that test, especially
this past year. Phil truly lived by the philosophy he so eloquently
wrote about. We were with him 24/7 as Phil would say, and he
was never angry, resentful or bitter about what was happening
to him. He never complained that it was unfair. He was deeply
grateful for all the blessings in his life and he simply wanted
the chance to keep living the life he had.
The first of several memorial services for Phil will be held
at the offices of Scholastic in New York City on Saturday,
June 22, 2002. The time will be announced later, but it most
likely will be around noon. Please email me through the website
or at PSUDO@AOL.COM to let me know if you are planning to attend.
We need to have a list of people attending for the building
securtity officers. A service will also be held later this
summer in the Twin Cities and I will provide details as they
become available. Phil's ashes will be buried in Maui, Hawaii
sometime next spring.
The New York memorial service will be informal with family
and friends sharing their memories of Phil. Our children will
be there and all children are welcome. It goes without saying
if you knew Phil that wearing a suit is definately not necessary
unless that is what you feel comfortable wearing.
Several people have asked me about making donations to a memorial
fund. We are setting up an education fund for our three children,
Naomi (7), Keith(5) and Jonathan(3). I would also like to set
up a Zen Guitar Foundation to help further Phil's vision for
Zen Guitar and also to donate money to cancer research. The
details will be made available soon.
More important than donations to a fund are the donations
of your memories of Phil and how he affected your life. Our
children are very young and it is important that they know
their father. They have the incredible gift of Phil's writing,
but I want them to also know the small moments of Phil's life.
I am going to prepare a memory book for each of our children
and for Phil's mother and bring them to the memorial service.
Please bring contributions to be put in the memory books. It
can be a wrtitten memory of a moment you shared with Phil,
a photograph, a work of art, or whatever you feel moved to
do. It would be helpful if you bring a copy for each book.
Phil, his mother, his brothers, Rich and Paul, and I were
amazed at the outpouring of love and support for Phil over
the past year, not just from people we knew, but from people
we have never met. We thank you for the love, the thoughts,
prayers, and kind gestures that have sustained us and more
importantly sustained Phil through his illness.
With love, gratitude and aloha,
Tracy
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