Lori's Heart Valve Journal

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Hey Lori, I still think of you often, and still really miss your part of my life. I posted this on your Facebook page which so much of us still check regularly, but I wanted this to be part of this journal as well - since to so many of us you will always be real, and you will last forever:

“What is REAL?" asked the Velveteen Rabbit one day... "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When [someone] loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.

"Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand... once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.”

― Margery Williams Bianco, The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real

Hi Lori,, it came to me now that in a few weeks it will be one year August 13th,2010 that you went into surgery..I never knew that it could hurt so much and what an impact you have made in our family..we still cry and it feels better somehow..where did you go..where did you go..we used to email and talk and i miss all the information that you used to send..you were very special in our lives..thank you for all the thoughtful gifts over the years.. I still remember your wedding day and you in that beautiful dress.and the times you and Adam dated..funny stories..and the engagement party we Dad and I went to and all your friends and neightbours sharing their thoughts and love for you.. Gone much too soon..you loved your children so much..so much...Hugs and kisses.. Ellie

Hi Lori, by this time you are in heaven,,we were at the cemetary and saw the beautiful granit stone and the bench with two hearts..we will miss you on your trip to Collingwood this summer.. last summer you were discussing your surgery on the beach and I am glad I gave you a few extra hugs..Adam and I send you always,,,love and kisses and we miss you now

Ellie Barta.

I am so sorry for the loss of Lori. We had lost touch after she moved from Houston to Austin and it's been years since we spoke, but she was truly a wonderful person who I'm so happy to have had the privilege to know and spend time with. I only learned of her passing from seeing her name on the "Roll Call for the Absent" list at Aggie Muster. It was a huge shock! I am in tears. Despite the years... she will be truly missed by me. All who knew her were truly blessed to have had the privilege. Thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

-Allen '93

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