Monday, September 05, 2005
The Alan Wormser 30 Day Celebration Final Plan
September 18th from 2:00 - 7:00pm at Brookfield Park
We finally have a plan locked in place! We will begin at 2:00pm at the Brookfield Park shelter. The address is: 7417 Floyd Avenue, Springfield VA
Phone: 703-324-8732
Web page: http://www.co.fairfax.va.us/parks/picnics/sprinics.htm
There will be plenty of picnic tables, but if you want more comfortable seating, please bring your own picnicing chairs.
This will be a pitch-in picnic (Alan would have called it a "pot-luck" and teased me about saying "pitch-in"), so please bring a dish to share. In a day or so we will figure out a more detailed plan for suggesting what to bring. Please watch this space for updates.
The Jewish tradition of holding this celebration, called in Hebrew the Sh' loshim, includes celebrating the life of our lost loved one. To that end, we are asking all people wishing to celebrate Alan's life to come prepared to participate in the activities Alan loved best. We are inviting you to come dance with the local folk dancers, try out and learn about Morse Code with the Alexandria Amateur Radio Club, and see the renaissance fencing done by the local Barony of Ponte Alto from the Society for Creative Anachronism. If you are a folk dancer, Ham radio operator, or SCA member, we invite and encourage you to come to this event to honor Alan.
I would like to actually start by 2:00, so if you have something to set up, please come earlier than 2:00. There's a lot of dancing, code, and fencing to do in one afternoon. I will be at the site by about 12:00 noon myself. (I understand the Pontoons will be cleaning up their own event that morning, so please just come as soon as you can manage.)
At around 5:00 - 5:30, our dear Cantor Steinberg will lead us in another memorial service much like the service she and Rabbi Aft lead for us at Alan's house on August 21st. If you missed that service, this will be another opportunity for you receive the comfort that ceremony can provide.
So, for those of you who wish to share in Alan's/Sandor's/N5LF's favorite activities:
SCA members: bring fencing gear, wear garb
Folk dancers: bring music, wear good shoes
Hams: be prepared to copy code
As always, I am still asking for donations of copies of pictures of Alan and written stories about Alan. The only pictures I have of him are of the times Alan and I were together in the past year and a half. My request for your help in this is deeply felt and sincere. Please take a few minutes to see if you have pictures or can write down a story. These bits of how other people saw Alan mean a great deal to me, and I know that memories will soon fade. Any donations of 3 copies of what you have will be greatly appreciated so that I can easily give copies to Alan's sisters, Debbie and Lisa. I will bring a basket for such donations at the Sh'loshim.
I look forward to seeing more of all of you. I also look forward to dancing with many of you on the 18th. Please don't hesitate to contact me via email at "orange at indy dot net."
With much love and gratitude,
Lara Coutinho, Alan's fiancee'
We finally have a plan locked in place! We will begin at 2:00pm at the Brookfield Park shelter. The address is: 7417 Floyd Avenue, Springfield VA
Phone: 703-324-8732
Web page: http://www.co.fairfax.va.us/parks/picnics/sprinics.htm
There will be plenty of picnic tables, but if you want more comfortable seating, please bring your own picnicing chairs.
This will be a pitch-in picnic (Alan would have called it a "pot-luck" and teased me about saying "pitch-in"), so please bring a dish to share. In a day or so we will figure out a more detailed plan for suggesting what to bring. Please watch this space for updates.
The Jewish tradition of holding this celebration, called in Hebrew the Sh' loshim, includes celebrating the life of our lost loved one. To that end, we are asking all people wishing to celebrate Alan's life to come prepared to participate in the activities Alan loved best. We are inviting you to come dance with the local folk dancers, try out and learn about Morse Code with the Alexandria Amateur Radio Club, and see the renaissance fencing done by the local Barony of Ponte Alto from the Society for Creative Anachronism. If you are a folk dancer, Ham radio operator, or SCA member, we invite and encourage you to come to this event to honor Alan.
I would like to actually start by 2:00, so if you have something to set up, please come earlier than 2:00. There's a lot of dancing, code, and fencing to do in one afternoon. I will be at the site by about 12:00 noon myself. (I understand the Pontoons will be cleaning up their own event that morning, so please just come as soon as you can manage.)
At around 5:00 - 5:30, our dear Cantor Steinberg will lead us in another memorial service much like the service she and Rabbi Aft lead for us at Alan's house on August 21st. If you missed that service, this will be another opportunity for you receive the comfort that ceremony can provide.
So, for those of you who wish to share in Alan's/Sandor's/N5LF's favorite activities:
SCA members: bring fencing gear, wear garb
Folk dancers: bring music, wear good shoes
Hams: be prepared to copy code
As always, I am still asking for donations of copies of pictures of Alan and written stories about Alan. The only pictures I have of him are of the times Alan and I were together in the past year and a half. My request for your help in this is deeply felt and sincere. Please take a few minutes to see if you have pictures or can write down a story. These bits of how other people saw Alan mean a great deal to me, and I know that memories will soon fade. Any donations of 3 copies of what you have will be greatly appreciated so that I can easily give copies to Alan's sisters, Debbie and Lisa. I will bring a basket for such donations at the Sh'loshim.
I look forward to seeing more of all of you. I also look forward to dancing with many of you on the 18th. Please don't hesitate to contact me via email at "orange at indy dot net."
With much love and gratitude,
Lara Coutinho, Alan's fiancee'
