Dear Charlie,                                                               May 1, 2016

I decided to write you a letter because I never got to say goodbye.  There are a few things I wanted you to know and I don't think I ever got the chance to tell you.  Most importantly, I was proud to be your sister.  There were the obvious reasons like you being the high school valedictorian, graduating from Stanford, and always working out like a professional athlete in the many sports you excelled in. You were good at so many things and made them all look easy. I feel like I could have taken credit for some of it because when you were born, I felt like a mini mom to you.  I wanted to be the older, wiser sister, show you that ways of the world, and tame the wild child.  Or at least, teach you proper table manners which I sadly, was never able to do.  So many times I would sigh and say, “you look like you were raised by wolves” when watching you at the dinner table.   

I never got to tell how much I enjoyed the quiet moments with you.  How I would look forward to all the times you would come stay at my house.  I would always try and have your favorite foods, extra towels and fresh batteries in the tv remotes.   We would spend hours watching some of the best and worst movies of all times, followed by lengthy discussions on how we could have changed and improved each film. I enjoyed being your home away from home when you were in the Bay Area, even if it was for laundry and meal service.

I was always impressed by your strength not only physically but mentally.  When your grandmother Dorothy was in her final days, you were with her around the clock tending to her every need and stayed strong for your mom, you were her rock and always able to support the ones that needed you most.

I was warmed by watching your relationship with dad, truly his best friend in many ways.  You brought dad joy and companionship whether at the office, on the slopes, sailing at the lake or discussing each play of a 49er game.

Most of all,  I never got to thank you.  You brought so many smiles to my face.  Laughing together, often from one of your sarcastic remarks was pure entertainment.  You were so charming that you even talked your way out of a moving violation when I was the one driving and took a wrong left turn.

I wanted to thank you for all the hours you played on the beach with my kids.  Showed them how fun eating crazy foods could be including their favorite which was butter fried shrimp tails, not the shrimp, just the tail.

I was the most proud of watching you become a loving and fun dad.  Eli and Ava are the best of the very best of you.  Everyone here will keep your memory alive for them so they can know you the way we did.    Thank you for teaching us all how to never stop playing, inventing new games, and making silly cool again.

I was lucky to have had you as my brother.

You will never be out of mind just because you are out of site.  I love you!!

Charlie was at the hospital for all of the births of Andrea and my children.  He came to the birth of my first born and tired to peek in as things were gettintg close. After many hours of labour I finally had an epidural and so as Erik was born we had cuban music going and we were all making jokes.  When Charlie and my sister were finally allowed in, the first thing he said to us was he was very concerned that we were having too much fun and did I really think my doctor knew what she was doing!

My brother Charlie,

There are so many stories to share of growing up with Charlie but I wanted to start by telling you how fun as an older sister it was to show and teach him things for the first time.

When he was 10, he came to Berkeley so I could take him to his first A’s game.  I wanted to show him some berkeley hotspots which started with a slice of Pizza from Blondes on Telegraph ave.  We parked and when I gave him a coin to put in the meter he looked at me and asked, what is this?  He had never put money in a parking meter as he explained to me” We don’t have those in Tahoe, there is lots of room there, so people just park anywhere” I knew then how he loved the mountains and would never be a city kid.

When he was 13, Nina and I took him to Hawaii to get his dive Cert.  He quickly learned the skills and I was his dive buddy for the first open water dive.  Well it made me laugh, which is not easy with a Reg in your mouth, when I realized how noisy he was even underwater.  I’m sure many of you remember how he would walk down the halls and the pictures would shake.  Needless to say, the fish heard us coming and they all took off before we could see anything.  So then he invented the new sport of Ninja Scuba, we stood on the ocean floor and played by doing our best version of karate kicks and chops.  He was a Ninja master by the time we left Hawaii.

Charlie the Uncle,
He was the first relative on the scene for all four of his nephews and nice’s births.  He wanted to be one of the first people to greet the baby and hold him or her.  We even had a road rally to get to the hospital for Erik’s birth and of course he won.

As the kids got older, He would come up with fun and action packed games he could play with them and each time it somehow ended up with the kids jumping all over him and they would roll around and laugh.  He was like the Incredible Hulk, trying to walk with Keelan and Ashlin dangling off of him.

One time when we came up to watch him coach the Incline High school basketball game he invited Keelan to sit on the bench with he and the players to watch courtside.  After an exciting win by Incline, Charlie and Keelan were playing hoops together and he asked him to join the JV team even though he was only 11.

With Ashlin he was always gentle and let her run the show.  She could ask him for anything and the answer was always yes.  When we were in Iceland, we went to a huge waterfall where we all took pictures and walked behind the falls.  Ashlin saw a steep trail along the side and wanted to go to the very top. The next thing I knew, she and Charlie marched up what looked like a million stairs to get to the top, you could hear them laugh and almost see their smiles as they reached the top, sharing a view just for them in a moment of triumph.

With Erik and Wyatt, Charlie was the skier with all the tricks of the mountain.  He led Erik down his first Black Diamond run to complete success and later, patiently skied with Wyatt on any run he wanted.  Wyatt, Keelan and Charlie all shared the love of food, eating some meals with only their hands, understanding forks were over rated.  

Charlie The Dad,

What breaks my heart the most is knowing Eli and Ava will not have the joy of growing up with Charlie at their side.  He was in love with his kids from the second they were born.  He always told me the kids were the most fun part of his life and what he was best at.  Being a dad is what Charlie was alway intended to be.

His energy is what I will miss most from the sports skills, sense of humor, to his famous philosophy which was:

“Life would be perfect if there was a Princess Patter at my door everyday”  That was the daily activity sheet from the cruise ship which lists out what is to come.

I would like to invite you all to share memories, fun stories, and know that Charlie was at his very best when he became a dad.  We can share these stories with Eli and Ava so he will stay alive in all of our hearts.