It was with great sadness that I learned of Helen's passing. Helen, Don and their kids (Blair was (is) more or less my age) figure in some of my very oldest memories ... visiting with them at the farm when I was perhaps 4 or 5 years old (the cows were terrifyingly huge!), their visits to us at our cottage in Tobermory. Don baptized all three of our children when we lived in Burlington. I think Don and Helen were my parents closest friends. My parents often reminisced about the good times they had together at university in Toronto, although my memory (or my parents' censoring!) has lost the details. My contact with the family has been regrettably little over the years but I last saw Helen at my mother's funeral. There was something about her presence on that day that has always stuck with me. It wasn't just the kind words she said, or the grateful feelings I had that my mother was fortunate enough to have had such a great friend. It felt to me like Helen emanated a kind of --- I can only call it "goodness" -- in my direction on that day. Her very presence there was somehow reassuring and although I can no longer recall what she said to me, I came away feeling stronger and more hopeful. I never told her that at the time, but I would like her family to know that I have thought about her often and with great fondness over the years. We're on the other side of the world, so far away, but our thoughts are with you all today.