Jasmine’s memorial service will be on Saturday, February 21 at 2:00 PM. We will be holding it at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington/Normal — the address follows:

1613 E. Emerson
Bloomington, IL

We ask that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to or time volunteered with one of the following organizations:

CF Foundation
web: http://cff.org/ways_to_give/
phone: 1-800-FIGHT CF

Make-A-Wish
web: http://cart.charityweb.net/wish2/cart/giving.htm
phone: 1-866-880-1382

Ronald McDonald House of St. Louis
mail: Ronald McDonald House Charities of Metro St. Louis
4381 West Pine
St. Louis, MO 63108

St. Louis Children’s Hospital
web: https://secure.websiteencryption.com/slch/articles/donation.asp
phone: 1-314-286-0988

Those of you flying in, let me know how I can help. Yahoo provides fair directions, but I can help — if anyone in Bloomington/Normal is willing to be a helper and guide people to hotels and locations, that would be great, please let me know.

Today we had a wonderful service at the hospital that was mostly hospital personnel. The chaplain was wonderful and really accommodated our spiritual needs; in fact, St. Louis Children’s Hospital in general was wonderful in this regard. Everyone was given a chance to share stories about Jasmine and then Jeff and I had the opportunity to speak. I felt comforted by being surrounded by these people who had cared for Jasmine and who were so visibly moved by her life and death. We have been blessed to be with these people at this time.

Jasmine was able to donate her corneas and heart valves. We know that her corneas were transplanted today and feel fortunate that we were able in some small way to give back what was given to us.

Thank you all for the flood of emails and phone calls. We are grieving hard and it is the most difficult time of our lives together as a family, but we are strengthened by your support. I look forward to seeing many of you this weekend and am so glad to know you are coming. For those of you who let us know you can’t make it, we know you are here in spirit.