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![]() Evanston, IL June 30, 2002
On June 21st, 1973, at 2:29 P.M., in Passavant Memorial Hospital, Chicago, a real superstar was born. Her father and I named her Danielle Anne.
Throughout her life Danielle always marched to her own drummer, doing things her own way. I recently read that courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears. This described Danielle perfectly. She had great courage throughout her life and never gave up reaching for the goals she had set for herself.
At King Lab School, Danielle's first teacher, Candy Sullivan, told her father and I that Danielle was very special. She was so bright and she had so much personality there would be no limit to how much so would accomplish during her lifetime. When she was in grade school, she wanted to play little league, which at that time was made up of mostly boys. She kept trying out each spring and finally made the team--she was one of only two girls in the league that season. All of the mothers would cheer for Danielle, even those who had sons on the other teams, and that year she won her first sports trophy.
Danielle was a spiritual person who loved being Jewish. She had entertained the thought of becoming a rabbi and "leading a very different type of congregation." Danielle decided to become a bat mitzvah on her own and worked very hard to accomplish this. She started Hebrew school later than most but made up for lost time very quickly. I have to brag that she did a perfect job on the day of her Bat Mitzvah reading from the Torah and delivering her speech. In true Danielle style she told me that she was "going for the gold," by wearing her new high heel shoes during the service when she carried the big torah (not the small one the other girls carried). This was not as simple as it sounds, because before that day she had never worn high heels.
Danielle took Evanston Township High School by storm, setting a new fashion trend when she arrived for the first day of summer school Freshman year wearing her dad's summer pajamas. Several of the other girls followed her example that summer. After all, pajamas were quite comfortable to wear on a hot summer's day.
In her junior year of high school, Danielle wanted to be a page in the U.S. House of Representatives. In order to get the job, she set out to meet everyone who might be able to help her. Congressman Sid Yates appointed her, and while she was in Washington, Danielle made sure she met every member of Congress. Soon she was on her way to becoming the liberal political person we all were so very proud of. Her brother Michael described Danielle's political leanings as being just to the left of Lenin. I don't think he was too far off. During the Gulf War, Danielle appeared on the CBS Morning Show to discuss her views of the war, and we all thought that this was the start of her political career.
Danielle was a leader in high school, and by using her offbeat sense of humor, she was able to get her friends to follow her lead. One year she got them to go to the Midnight Madness Sale at K-Mart in their formals and tuxes after the holiday dance, and the next year it was bowling. She always found a way to make everything fun. Danielle was the drummer for that great band Lord Lava and the Lush--and I really know how great they were because they practiced in our basement. She was on the golf team for three years and served as captain of the team during her senior year. She even received the team award for being most inspirational. She also won an award that year in her auto body class for rebuilding my car, a classic 1966 Mustang. Little did we know at that time how important that class would be for her future employment.
During her senior year, the biggest thing Danielle set out to do was to get admitted to Smith College. As we all know, she was admitted, and I don't think Smith will ever be the same. While at Smith Danielle played rugby; deejayed at parties; had her own radio show (who could ever forget D.J. Diversity Danielle?); was a member of the Smiffenpoofs; and a leader for the freshman program, Preludes. In her four years at Smith, Danielle managed to become friends with almost the entire campus. Of course, when Danielle became your friend she was your friend for life, keeping in touch by phone, e-mail, regular mail or whatever means it took to stay connected. If we had not known before how large a circle of friends Danielle had and the impact she had on them, we soon found out by the extraordinary number of visits to her website and the wonderful messages that everyone wrote to her during her illness. This outpouring of love and support Danielle received was remarkable.
After graduation from Smith, Danielle had many interesting careers. She spent a year in Northampton working at Pro Lube changing oil (those high school courses did come in handy) and deejaying at the W.W.II Club and at private parties. She also had her own Saturday-night radio show. She even got to spent a summer as aquatic director for Camp Kinderland in the Berkshire Mountains.
Then it was on to San Diego, California, and Americorps, where she taught art, painted houses worked in the National Forest, and became a certified forklift driver among her other accomplishments. She added even more good friends to her ever-growing circle of admirers.
After Americorps, Danielle came home to Evanston and was a kindergarten teachers' aid at Kingsley School, pool director at Northwestern University, then an event planner, and finally a grant writer for the Cook County States Attorney's office.
In April of 2000, Danielle realized her dream of moving to San Francisco. She went to work for the Avon Breast Cancer Walk, where her truck driving, event planning, and people skills were put to good use. In September of that year, Danielle started working for SquareTrade.com, moved into her apartment on Dolores Street, and was just beginning to really enjoy living in San Francisco and spending time with all of the many Smithies who live in the Bay Area. At Square Trade Danielle found not only a great job but a company that stood by her throughout her illness. When I tried to thank them, I was told it was nothing. After all, Danielle was family.
According to Judaism, angels can be created by human beings. Every good thought, word and deed gives birth to a positive force in the universe, which is called an angel. These angels are eternal. They hover around us throughout our life and accompany us to our reward after our death. I know that there were a lot of angels accompanying Danielle on June 16th.
A friend wrote to me saying that it was hard to imagine the world without Danielle and her spark. He is right, but I believe that there are bonds between loved ones that death cannot destroy and that Danielle had those bonds with all of us here today. In his book "Tuesdays with Morrie," Mitch Albom wrote "Death is the end of a lifetime, not the end of a relationship." There is also an Eskimo legend that I would like to share with you: "Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy." When we look up at the stars from now on, I hope that we will always think of Danielle and remember what a bright star she was and how happy she made all of us feel. |
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