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Reading all of the tributes to Erika has been incredible, thank you. She was an amazing, incredible person. Here are some of my tributes to her, my memories.
The last time she spoke to me was Thursday night. Visiting hours were over and I had to leave, so as I turned to leave her room, she said "I love you." I'm very happy that this was the last thing she said to me.
A few people have noted that they enjoyed seeing twitter banter between us, so I just looked through some of it. And that was fun, but looking at it that way, it's only a tiny bit of the great and fun conversations we had.
Each time I'd come up with a new Dad joke, our thing was that I would repeat it, over and over, as if she didn't understand the joke. She'd roll her eyes at me and just say "I get it" as I kept explaining it, and that would make me laugh so hard. She'd then laugh at my laughing.
Some also noted how accomplished she was and how much she fit into her life from being a Pulitzer finalist to being a reporter in Moscow and Abu Dhabi, getting to travel the world, the went back to school for a career change so she could help fight climate change.
She worked with the solar energy companies, which was great, but even that wasn't enough for her. We both work from home so I could hear her phone calls and her trying to explain racial and social economic justice to people and how the companies needed to do more.
Here's a little secret that she hadn't let out and only a couple other people knew. It wasn't enough for her. She needed to do more. She was studying to take the LSAT exam so she could go back to school again and become a lawyer.
Erika wanted to use a law degree to further fight against these injustices. We'd talked about ways she could use it in her career, but probably even more after retirement when she could advocate for and help whoever she wants, from a legal standpoint.
So yeah, in the next few years, she was going to be a lawyer. Her LSAT books are sitting on our coffee table, bookmarks all in place ready for her next study session.
Yesterday, one of the doctors attending to Erika asked who she was because he never got to speak to her in good times. I told him about her biking, love of hockey, her work. But one other thing stuck out, she was my conscience.
There were a few times when I'd want to do or say or tweet something and we'd talk about it and convince me that it wasn't the best idea.
I'll be adding to this thread in the days to come.
I'll be adding to this thread in the days to come.
