I’m Doug Lane. My world changed forever on January 29, 2025, when my wife Christine and son Spencer lost their lives in the crash of American Airlines Flight 5342 in Washington, DC. In the immediate aftermath of the crash, a posed photo of my family dressed in blue seemed to be everywhere. But the version above better reflects who we really were. Life was chaotic and messy at times. Maybe even most of the time. But it was also beautiful.
As my younger son Milo and I grieve and navigate our “new normal” day by day, I will use this email list to share stories, photos, and videos of Christine, Spencer, and the people who shaped their individual and shared journeys. Right now, my brain—and our family photo collection—are both a mess. So, the stories and images I share won’t be chronological. I'll share stories as they come to me and photos and videos as I find them.
I hope you’ll follow along—and maybe even reply to one of my emails with a story of your own.
Falling in love
As I alluded to in the story of how we met, the first date that Christine and I shared in Boston’s North End was lovely, but it didn’t ignite anything immediately. She had just started a new chapter in her life by moving to Boston and starting a
Spencer skates (part 1)
I can only remember Spencer being on ice skates twice prior to 2021. He attended a friend’s birthday party at a local rink when he was very young. Christine and I also took him out on the ice at Bryant Park once during a trip to New York City.
Big siblings
When Spencer began his training at The Skating Club of Boston, we were a bit star-struck at first. We had watched elite skaters like Maxim Naumov and the pairs team of Emily Chan and Spencer Howe (later to be known as “big Spencer”) on TV. At Skate America in 2022,
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