Diana Rao Says I Should Write a Book (as do many others)

 

An email to Diana Rao, one of our volunteers who was going skiing.  My cousin, Mike Crim, and his teenage daughter were skiing in CO and he hit a tree and died on the slope.  His wife and teenage son were back at the lodge that day because they were sick.  Mike worked for a place in Tampa called In The News and did the framed Big Cat Rescue article in the Party House for us.

 

His mother, Carole, is my mother's only sister and my namesake.  She had six boys.  Matt, her eldest, is the one I was raised with by our Grandmother "Momma Jacquie" (of Momma Jacquie's Cool Cat Cafe)  Matt and his girlfriend was my private tour on Saturday.  Matt had worked with Jamie on the Dave Mathews Band contest we did at Skipper's Smokehouse because they are DMB groupies.

 

Both of our mothers worked full time back in the 60's so Momma Jacquie raised Matt & I until we were old enough for school.  Jamie was her first great grandchild and she really wanted Jamie to go to college, but Jamie finished high school 2 years early as Valedictorian of her little private school so that she could help me run the sanctuary when Don left in 1997.

 

She never got the chance to follow her path, and when Momma Jacquie offered to send her to college, she asked that the money be donated to the sanctuary so we could build Food Prep instead.  Back then Jamie had cuts all over her from working in the tight quarters of our old Food Prep that was in a truck body in front of Apollo and Zeus.  Imagine all of the people slinging knives during food prep in a space that was only about 3 feet wide and 15 feet long, and that was what Food Prep was like.  A real nightmare!

 

Coincidentally, in 1997 we lost Don, my aunt Carole lost her husband Duane, who was Mike's dad, and we lost my grandfather, Big Daddy (the odd names were because he and Momma Jacquie told everyone they were my parents when I was little.)  Two years later Jamie lost her half brother Mickey in a car accident on his 29th birthday.  You have probably seen the sign on Jumanji's cage that she had made to commemorate the loss.

 

From his obituary:  CRIM, Michael, 41, of Temple Terrace, Fla., died in a skiing accident, December 24, 2009. A devoted servant of the Lord, husband, father, son, brother, uncle and lifetime friend, he selflessly gave in everything he did. Heaven is richer, our lives are poorer.

 

All in one email it seems like a lot of tragedy, but we have a huge family, so it probably isn't much different than the average over all.

 

And her reply:  WOW Carole, it truly is a tragedy that he died so young and the fact that your family is so large doesn't lessen the sense of loss.    Your family lost someone who sounds like a wonderful, active and caring man.    My heart goes out to you and all the others.    It seems like all of you are very close and share a lot of experiences and not having him there will be sad.   I think the loss of a loved one, be he/she friend or family is something no one ever gets "used to".   The pain is always sharp and the sense of loss is always great.  I think the only thing we learn from our many losses is that the passage of time does eventually heal and sweetens our memories.   The last sentence of his obituary, "Heaven is richer, our lives are poorer" is one of the most beautiful tributes to someone I have read.

 

On a different note, I hope that somewhere in your very busy schedule you have taken or can take some time to document and keep a written history of your family's rich and varied history,  I don't need to say how unique your family is in all the many things you have accomplished and all the experiences all of you have gained in achieving the creation of BCR.       It would make fascinating reading and at the least should be put in writing as a gift to your family.

 

Personally I find Jamie an amazing person with unlimited talents and drive and I don't really know her (not that I wouldn't love