Another Tribute to Alan Berman

This very kind message was sent to me by B. J. Biro Wood.  She and Alan were alumni of Vernon Court College in Newport, Rhode Island.

With all my heart I send my deepest sympathy to you, Mary, and the few others I have grown to know just by reading the messages Alan would post.  In a way, I feel I have met you through Alan's almost every day postings and the pictures he would put up.

I didn't fully realize how much Alan's joy and enthusiasm grew on me.  I actually looked forward to his positive, fun, postings each day.  Just for a line or two, he made me smile when he was off to a game, or what he was listening to at the moment.  I loved his joy ~ like it was the greatest moment, and that moment became delightful for me too.  I laughed!  If was fun!

The tennis championships have started;  I was so looking forward to sharing my love (and Alan's) for tennis.  We had that in common, and our love for Newport, R. I.  He was looking forward to his "every year" trip to Newport this summer.

Alan and I got in touch when I was looking for alumni who went to Vernon Court Jr. College, and that's how I found him.  I was in the first graduating class, and he was there a few years later.  He was very enthusiastic when I posted a lot of pictures of our college on FB, and shared some of his experiences and his "dorm".  Our college was really extraordinarily beautiful mansions of Newport's wonderful  past history.  The rooms on the 2nd, 3rd floors were turned into dorm rooms, yet everything, even the furniture, chandeliers, etc. remained the same as it was when these buildings were homes.  Alan said some of these gorgeous buildings are now museums, and some we had as dorms are not even open to the public.

I apologize this is long.  I haven't really been able to let out my feelings to anyone how devastated and shocked I feel about this horrific tragedy.  I have cried often.  I miss him ~ his postings.  It's glares out at me... the missing,  the emptiness of him not being on Facebook, and here everyday... He was just here Father's Day with the wonderful picture of his dad. 

Besides his joy of the oldies, sports, Newport, he seemed very nice.  A warm, kind, and nice person.  I know you know him personally, yet this is how I found him on FB.  What fun you and all his friends must have had together!  What good and special memories for you!

Please know that you and Alan's friends are in my heart.  I have always looked at pictures and Alan's postings carefully.  I am recuperating (I hope!) from a broken back or you might have seen a stranger at Alan's memorial ~ me.  I would have really done all I could to come for it, if that would have been alright.  

Is there any way I can honor the memory of Alan with a donation to his favorite charity, or any place at all?

Thank you, Bruce, for listening.  

B. J. Biro Wood