Dear Henry

Dear Henry:

Sorry I haven't written but I have been helping Mom with something she was writing on the computer. She wrote a presentation to make to a bunch of really important people today. She talked about what we did to try to have another baby that had healthy blood to give to you. We want to make sure other families get a chance to do what we did and hopefully it will work for them. A lot of President Bush's guys were there and Dr. Rosenwaks, Dr. Auerbach and Mark Hughes were all there too. They miss you so much. I don't know if you remember Mark. We went to lunch one day with him at Mom's old college, "M Go Blue." His wife died when he was working with us and he went to his laboratory right after her funeral to help us. He is such a good person, and he told me today that he is so sorry that he couldn't save your life. He tried so hard and so did me and Mom. I am so sorry too. It was a little weird and nice and hard to see our friend Sharon who was here for the same meeting. Do you remember the meetings you used to go to with me at the coffee place by the Gan and David Segal's apartment. You were very helpful, you know that. Well, Sharon came here from Tel Aviv for this meeting with Mom and all of the doctors. You probably remember when we saw Sharon in New York with her husband Yavin and their little boy Amitai. He had the same problem with his blood that you had. Sharon -- you say "Shah-rown" the way you say the Hebrew words you learned in school -- had a baby with the help of Mark and Dr. Rosenwaks and her name is Alma. Doctors in Israel gave Amitai some of Alma's blood the same way you got your new blood in Minnesota from Beverly. It looks like Amitai is going to be okay and not have any of the problems you had. When Sharon spoke today to the doctors, she said that Henry Strongin Goldberg saved Amitai's life. You did. That is the best thing that any person can do. Saving someone's life and loving people are the greatest things we can ever do and you did both. I am proud of you.

We will go visit Sharon and her family in Israel some time. I am sorry that you never saw Jerusalem. It is so beautiful. Yavin and Sharon planted a small grove of trees on a hill overlooking Jerusalem in your honor.

I want to show you an email that Mom and I got from one of the teachers who helped in Aunt Tracey's class.

Dear Laurie and Allen.

Dec.31, 2002

My name is Elizabeth Aloni, teacher at Gan Ha Yeled at Adas Israel (the
Chicks class). Last year, in a shabbat class celebration Henry came
over as a special guest for Sam Strongin's. That was a very special day for all
of us, the little ones were observing all Henry's motions and inputs.
Anyway G-d bless his memory. What I want to tell you is that on that day, when
we passed the Tzedakah box to collect pennies for charity, Henry said
"this is very important, we should give this money to the poor children in
Africa or Afganistan...."

That was very sweet of you. You always thought of others (starting with me, Mom, Jack and Joe) and that was really nice and really grown up of you.

It has been snowing a lot around here lately. You know the sun hasn't really shone since you died. There is a great song that says, "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone." I feel that way about you. I am not sure if the sun hasn't come out or I just feel that way. I feel like it makes sense the sun isn't shining, but I will be okay when it does finally come out.

I am going to try and go to sleep now. Mom has one more day at the meeting tomorrow. I missed her a lot when she was there today and I was home. When I am away from her I get more sad about you, but that isn't a terrible thing really. I see you in Joe a lot of the time. That helps. I don't confuse you guys though. There was a Rabbi at the meeting today and he told a story about how he remembered a thing so clearly that happened when he was 6 or 7 years old. He looked like he was in his 70s so that made me feel good. It made me think that my memories of you will be clear in my mind too when I am in my 60s, 70s and 80s.

I love you big guy.

Dad

p.s. Jack, otherwise known as Sir Burpsalot, is sleeping in our bed tonight and he cannot stop yakking even though everyone is trying to fall asleep. You were always like that too. Oh my god. Whenever I wanted to go to sleep you would just talk, talk, talk. The later it was the more you had to say. It was that way in the car, at the hospital everywhere. You know, thanks for doing that. I didn't know it then but it let us spend more time together. As for right now, I don't want to go to sleep, I don't want to say goodnight to you. I love you so, so much.