This is the second post in a series about my experience in the immediate aftermath of the Flight 5342 tragedy (part one: The Night It Happened). Revisiting this period is helpful to me, but reading about it may not be helpful to you. Feel free to skip this one if
I’ve decided to write a series of posts about my experience in the immediate aftermath of the collision. Revisiting this period is helpful to me, but reading about it may not be helpful to you. Feel free to skip this one if you might find it upsetting. Spencer and
Spencer would have turned 18 and entered adulthood today. I don’t need to imagine what he would have been like as an adult. He was always strong-willed and independent. He always viewed himself as an equal when engaging with adults, whether they were parents, teachers, or, yes, skating
Spencer Skates (Part 2) left off in October 2022, when Spencer visited the Skating Club of Boston for the first time to attend Skate America, an elite international competition. In addition to being a great time, seeing competition at the highest level so close to home opened Spencer's
TL;DR: My sister and I are skating a 5K to raise money for The Skating Club of Boston’s Always Champions campaign, which will fund a permanent memorial and scholarships honoring the members of the club community we lost on Flight 5342. You can donate here. When the collision
Spencer Skates (Part 1) left off in April 2022, when Spencer began taking private lessons with Warwick Figure Skaters, one of the local clubs in Rhode Island. He and his coach, Kristine Wilkinson, began working on the foundational skating skills that everything else is built on. Spencer being Spencer, he
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
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.
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
How many near misses between helicopters and airplanes should occur at one airport before some kind of action is taken? I’m guessing your answer is less than 15,214. How many feet below a descending airplane carrying your family members should a military helicopter be allowed to fly? Would
In addition to being very skilled as a quilter and maker, Christine was also an accomplished photographer. This passion came from her father, Wayne Conrad. Wayne shared some thoughts about their shared love of photography: I got my first Kodak Brownie camera at about the age of six and have
The Head of the Charles Regatta is a prestigious rowing event held annually on Boston’s Charles River. I’m not really into rowing. But all through college, I worked as a doorman/bellman/valet at a Boston hotel not far from the Charles. I remember standing in front of
