A word from Bryan

Yesterday Rick received a rare and precious gift. A friend from college who taught one of Bryan's sociology classes at North Central sent us this email that Bryan wrote in December of 2005. Please read the email and then Rick's response below. I cannot tell you how grateful we were to receive this word of encouragement from Bryan himself.

Bryan' Email:

Mr. Gross - I've been thinking of what I would like to get out of this internship so let me start by saying that I, like most college sophmores, I don't know what I would like to do like with my life. I love playing music and that is what I would really like to do, but even if everything turns out the way I would like it to I would also like to incorporate philanthropy into what I do. I think it is extremely important to think of others and give to those who are in need. My brother Rick has been a huge influence on me in this way. He works witha number of refugee families, helping them get accustomed to American life, helping them financially by buying things they need, and being somewhat of a father figure for their children. This Christmas he shopped for over fifty people! Anyways, I would like to get involved inan effort to help people in need as well. I feel that I could possibly help organize an event to benefit a charity, or possibly even mybrother's charity, if I meet the right people and learn what it takes to organize an event like that. I'd also be excited to be work with an organization in any way that helps fight poverty or other urban issues like housing issues, aid to the poor (which would be extremely important right now), or something close to that. This stuff is really important to me because I've always envisioned myself as someone would save the world (even though I haven'tdone that much to contribute yet). I've always had big visions of my band being one that actually raises awareness about issues instead of focusing on themselves. Well, this will hopefully give you an idea of who I am, and if you have any questions or comments please let me know.Thanks, Bryan Guzman

Rick's response:

wow. I can't even find the words to tell you how much I appreciate you forwarding my brother's email that he sent you. It's funny how few of these types of things that I have--perhaps mostly because we rarely went any great length of time w/o seeing each other and so we rarely wrote or emailed about anything terribly substantive. Also, I must admit that there have been moments over the past year where I find myself wondering if we're somehow exploiting Bryan's memory in bringing to fruition a project that we had always planned/wanted to do anyway. Bryan gave financially to our foundation on several occasions and I've never really doubted that he'd be proud of what we're trying to do to create this living memorial. There was so much about his spirit that gave me such an overwhelming confidence that he would support this idea... but still on several occasions people have asked if our foundation was something that Bryan cared about... newspaper articles have assumed that Bryan was "deeply passionate" about the cause of helping refugees. And again, while I never had any reason to doubt the underlying truth of those statements... or my affirmative responses to the questions, most of my confidence was based on unspoken signs or gestures... and the way the impact of Bryan's life and spirit have been evidenced through the stories and reactions of others that knew him. So despite knowing all along, there's still no small amount of comfort in reading Bryan's actual words. We all have this tendency to romanticize the deceased. This email and your own account of Bryan do no such thing... but far more meaningfully, they affirm the honest and genuine nature of a caring spirit who may not have yet figured out exactly what to do or how to do it, but clearly had a drive and desire to be about the business of difference-making. I can't tell you how grateful I am for this type of opportunity to feel connected again to my brother. I've felt Bryan in this project. And somehow knew that he was working alongside us to accomplish our goals of empowering those who at times have been dis-empowered. Indeed that sense of his presence has been the only thing that's made the past year at all bearable. Somehow after reading and re-reading Bryan's words, I feel that strong sense of connection strengthened even more. Thanks, Matt.