You are in our thought and prayers.
I hope we can visit you soon.

Love
Farha

Go with the tree dude…

Dan

Yet another MN lurker/nosey busy body. I learned of your story as all other Minnesotans did… via the ST article. I work at a hospital in the twin cities, and that Sunday morning a nurse pulled me aside to read the article. By the time that we got to your blog a small army of nurses had formed all with tears in our eyes as we read your story. But anywho…
The money….
I really like the idea of scrapbooking, and the vacation. You can tell from your blog/pictures that both have played a big role in your life thus far. This may be going out on a limb here, but maybe you should spend some of the money and get your new favorite picture of Liz and have it blown up and professionally framed. I too (from what I have read so far) think that picture sums up Liz’s personality.
Regardless of what you choice to do with that money I am sure that it will be special to you, and that’s what matters. After all I think that you probably know yourself better than anyone else.
Best of luck in everything you do. There are no words that can even begin to explain how much I admire your courage and strength in this horrible (minus Maddy of course) situation.

I look forward to future updates!!

If you are going to move in the next few years, I would not suggest buying a tree… it will make the move even more emotionally difficult that I imagine that it will already be for you…..

I would suggest a beautiful vintage cabinet of some sort — not a “hope chest” but more of a china cabinet look that can be used to display some of Liz’s favorite things, and also has some storage to put away even more things for Madeline to use down the road…you know, the kind with glass “windows” sort of like the gorgeous doors in front of your books.

Or… perhaps make your blog into a book to preserve the memories of Liz? There are many self-publishing companies that will assist you in turning your blogs and/or favorite photos into a gorgeous coffee table book. Kodak dot com also does this…

The nerd in me thought I would share with you some interesting information about the number 255… from wikipedia… it is a “perfect number” and has some very unique and special characteristics…. perhaps your robot already knows this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/255_(number)

You don’t seem to “need” the money for practical stuff, and you obviously have loads of photos and lots of Liz’s “things” to pass along to the Divine Miss M when she’s older, and like someone mentioned, any jewelry you bought with it wouldn’t have touched Liz’s skin anyway (and as an aside, I have to say I worry about the whole jewelry thing — you already lost a bunch of that in a robbery, didn’t you? it would be so devastating to imbue more with so much meaning only to have that be lost or stolen, so if you do go that route, I recommend something that has meaning and value for you and your daughter, but little intrinsic value, in order to protect it — insurance would cover that loss about as adequately as the $255 covers your loss of Liz).

Anyway, what I wanted to suggest was using those particular dollars, obtained under these particular circumstances, to get something for Liz’s parents that comes just from you, to acknowledge, mourn, and celebrate (all in one) that out of all of this horrible tragedy, you have gained what they have lost: a precious daughter.

So here is my unsolicited advice – keep lots of pictures of Liz, keep some of her favorite items, some of her writing, and a few pieces of her clothing. Not too much to be morbid, but so that Madeline can get a sense of Liz. How tall she was, the size of her feet. The way she wrote. Keep these things together and pull them out every couple of years.

Eventually, your life will move on. I wish you peace and strength. May God bless you and your beautiful daughter.