Jessica was re-sentenced today by Judge Hill to 3 years in state prison at 50% credit, down from 5 and a half at 15% credit. Essentially, this means that instead of being in high-security for another 4 years, she should be out by Christmas.
Thanks to all of you who have followed this and held good thoughts for us. Going back to the woods.
Susan
Dear all,
Joe died in his sleep this morning, May 5, 2008, at about 7:30 AM. His family was by his side. He lived gallantly with his lymphoma for ten years and he died gallantly, with love and grace and humor.
A few hours before he died he read the following poem to his family:
Banquet at the Tso Family Manor
The windy forest is checkered
By the light of the setting,
Waning moon. I tune the lute,
Its strings are moist with dew.
The brook flows in the darkness
Below the flower path. The thatched
Roof is crowned with contellations.
As I write, the candles burn short.
Our wits grow sharp as swords while
The wine goes round. When the poem
Contest is ended, someone
Sings a song of the South. And
I think of my little boat,
And long to be on my way. TU FU
Later he told us this story:
A cardinal and a judge arrived at the Pearly Gates at the same time. St. Peter took the judge on a tour of the heavenly realm and gave him the finest accommodations. It took some time before St. Peter got back to the gates.
The cardinal had become impatient. ”I’m a cardinal. How come you kept me waiting?” St. Peter replied, “You may be a cardinal, but this is the first time we’ve gotten a judge.”
Joe must have been saving this story for a long time.
He read the obituary he’d written to us, too.
As fits with my character, I have written my own obituary. I was born February 21, 1932, in St. Paul, MN, and now I have died in Santa Barbara, CA. My peace in life was my wife, Sheila, and my dear children. My journey, from my 1950‚s days as a philosophy major at the University of Michigan, has been the exploration of all the great cosmic questions surrounding our lives. For some years I have felt at peace with the answers and insights I have found. I wish I could pass them on to those I love. It cannot be done. Each of us must find our own pathway through the density and darkness to at last find that you are “back in Kansas”, standing where you were, so to speak, with everything so clear and obvious as to make you even question whether in fact you did “journey”.
I now end this with a deliberate (and important) misquote from Dylan Thomas
– I “DO go gentle into that good night”.
He DID go gentle into that good night, sending his love to you all.
Sheila Lodge and family
————————————————————
There will be no memorial. Joe considered his in-lieu of retirement party
in September, 2002, as his memorial… and he got to be there!
He donated his body to the UCLA medical school, and it is on its way there.
There is a shortage of cadavers, and he would have been pleased to know
that even in death he could be useful.
Donations may be made to Planned Parenthood of Santa Barbara, Ventura and
San Luis Obispo Counties, 518 Garden Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
