Many of you feel as though you know my friend Dini through my blog,
Some of you have actually met Dini.
I am so glad for that.
I wish all of you could know Dini the way I do.
She is infectious!
Now, in a small way, you can.
We have set up a webpage.
It’s called http://www.welovedini.com/
How it began was I sent out the following email:
This thing has taken on a life of it’s own in 12 (long) hours.
Dear friends of Dini,
My name is Chris Baker. I am a close friend of Dini’s as well as her neighbor here in Overland Park. My husband Mike used to work with Brent at Black & Veatch. Our families spent a year together living in Texas where Mike and Brent were working at the time. Dini and I became very close as we spent a lot of quality time together with our kids.
It is with a very heavy heart that I am writing this letter. This past weekend, it was made clear to us that Dini is losing her battle against this horrendously cruel disease. Dini herself has now been made aware of the situation and is slowly, yet bravely absorbing the enormity of it. Her mother was also told the news recently and even though there is a language barrier between us, it is clear that just like love, pain too is a universal language. Her heart is clearly broken.
Brent has had a very difficult conversation with the boys regarding Dini. Ryan wanted to know when she was going to come home and won’t be sick anymore. Brent knew it was time to tell them the reality of the situation; there are no words that I can write here that would do any justice to that moment they shared. All I can tell those of you who live so far away and have to rely on those of us who are close by is that those boys, Ryan and Nathan are surrounded by love. Dini has so many friends, as does Brent who have literally put portions of their own lives on hold to help tend to Dini. Loving her children has been a collective and joyous privilege.
Brent has been a rock all along. I’m sure he won’t approve of me saying this but the rock is showing signs of fatigue. He will no doubt see Dini and the boys through this, that’s what he does. But he does need us and will continue to do so for quite a long time.
For right now though, there is something Brent has asked that “we” do for Dini and the boys. He has asked that each of us write Dini a letter and share some of your favorite memories of time spent with her. We need some uplifting, silly stories included in these letters. As usual, she does not want to talk or focus on the negative, but only on the positive. Our intent is to read them to Dini as she’s resting in bed. She still loves to smile, and we have an opportunity to put many more smiles on her face with these great stories. We also would like to ask if you could include a letter to Ryan and Nathan telling them about their mother. We will save these, actually we’d like to print them and put them into book format so they always have them to look back on. Ryan made the comment the other day that he doesn’t remember his Mom when she wasn’t sick. These stories will bring those memories back to life for all of them.
If you would address your emails to Brent at BurgerBB@bv.com AND copy them to my email address at Chris@Chrissycan.com I will post them to a website (blog) I set up so that we can all reminisce and enjoy our memories with Dini. That site can now be accessed at http://www.welovedini.blogspot.com/
Please find time to make this a priority. Dini really needs us right now. Thank you so, so much.
Chris Baker
Chris@Chrissycan.com
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