Greg Kearney:  

Editorial Cartoonist for the Topeka Capital-Journal I thought I should share this eulogy I wrote upon the death of my dearest friend Lori Pinette: Lori Anne Pinette Once upon a time there was a girl I knew, who went to my school. We come here today to remember the life of that girl. Lori Pinette noticed a rather awkward boy that arrived at Oak Grove-Coburn and lived, with a handful of other boys, in the dormitory there. I am not sure, even now, what she could have possibly seen in me. But I do know, with perfect clarity, what I saw in her. In Lori there was talent, there was astounding beauty. There was humour. But deeper than all of that was a steely resolve when faced with challenges. It was, as I look back upon it now, Lori's most attractive and endearing quality. That resolve which showed itself in the sometime shy girl of my youth would manifest itself time and again in the woman that Lori became. I would like to say a few words to Lori's children concerning their mother. She was the single most gifted person I have ever known. She was able to generate within me the widest range of emotions from a deep love to a warm and lasting friendship to the most profound sense of loss at her passing. She was strong beyond words to situations that would have broken a lesser soul. If I had been able to do anything to help her I would have done so. She often spoke to me of her children and how she felt that they were her greatest accomplishment. I feel that her greatest accomplishment was in the way that she rose above all the challenges she faced to raise those children into adulthood. The greatest honour you could bestow upon your mother now is to show that same resolve she did to make those around you better persons. Your children will not have the opportunity to know their grandmother as we have. You, and they, need to know that there are people in this world who loved your mother and their grandmother, who admired her talents who were made better by having known her. We love her still, we always will. Lori was the first great love of my life and like so many first loves I fear I did not handle well the range of of emotions that come with ...Expand for more