From: Susan Elizabeth Buckingham [mailto:Susan.Buckingham@Colorado.EDU]
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 2:00 PM
To: hjwfund@comcast.net
Subject: From the Holton class of 1988

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Wilson,
 

On behalf of the Holton class of 1988, I am writing again to express our sorrow for Heather’s passing and our joy at having had a chance to spend time with her. Last month, our class attended a 20th reunion. Several of the women were able to successfully get an email contact for most of folks in our class.  Although, few could attend the actual reunion, many more have shared stories and pictures online in a “virtual” reunion of sorts. With this new ability to communicate, one of the first things to come up was Heather’s passing. Several women wrote to the email list and expressed what an uncommon and bright spirit Heather was and we quickly began discussing how we might create some kind of memorial in her honor.

I am writing you both in hopes that you could guide us in selecting a tribute for Heather. There have been several suggestions such as giving to Holton’s Annual Fund under Heather’s name or creating a specific memorial for Heather up at Holton. Recently I emailed the Holton list The Heather Joy Wilson Memorial Fund web page and folks have become more familiar with the wonderful work being completed there. Our third idea is to give directly to her charity and fund more of the activities in which Heather was so involved.

We would like you both to tell us how you would prefer that we honor Heather as a class. Our class was never particularly “tight knit” or remained close after graduation. Some of us were quickly caught up in our careers after college and there were others who were eager to leave our high school experiences behind.  It has been too long for us in creating a tribute to Heather. Yet that lapse is merely a function of fragmented communication and it says nothing about how much we all cared for and respected Heather. Now that the class can be united across the internet, we would like the opportunity to show her parents and the many others that knew her, how much we thought of the special young woman who sat beside us in class for so many years.

We would appreciate your feedback on any of the current ideas or even a suggestion for another sort of tribute all together. They are so many of us who cared very deeply about Heather; her generous spirit affected many of us. Now we would like an opportunity to express those feelings in some way that is aligned with the vivid way you both have kept her memory.

Sincerely,

Susan Buckingham