I’ll begin with a description one might never associate with Erica, (Peggy) if you didn’t know her, tenacious. But it’s what cemented her many talents, harnessed her vital force to manage her health challenges, and anchored her when buffeted by life’s storms.

Some know that Erica organized all of my many professional endeavors in medicine and media. She was my manager and executive assistant, interfacing with TV producers and executives at NBC Today Show in New York, the Discovery Channel in Maryland, and 20th Century in Hollywood, as well as my medical department colleagues and staff at Johns Hopkins. She arranged, in great detail, my many engagements throughout the USA; booking them, turning some down, with grace and creative aplomb.

The feedback to me about their interactions with my manager was of her reliability, kindness, and confidentiality, and of how much they enjoyed talking with her. I worried for nothing, Erica had thought of it and/or had implemented it. I could not have accomplished so much without her.

Some may know how creative she was. She was an artist with impressionistic and modern art tendencies, using vivid colors. Her paintings embodied her life’s energies. She had eclectic and distinctive taste. As a contractor’s daughter, she understood how a room or house needed to be renovated or built and as an artist what to do with a room to make it uniquely beautiful and livable(interior déco).

Peggy was loyal to a fault, to her family, friends, to me. Her loyalty was her bond, and an expression of love. We shared more than the DNA of family. We shared a lifetime of good and testing times. Peggy meant a lot to me. I loved her and she loved me. What a divine gift to have had for so many years.