Friday, May 1st, 2026

Friday, May 1, 2026

Hi everyone,

This is Lis again, the eldest sibling. Andy had, from time to time, written about his years growing up. I’ll pick up a little on that thread. I’m sure others will have different, and likely more interesting, recollections, but here goes.

There is a 4 year age gap between Andy and me. As an adult, 4 years now seems like nothing. As a child, it was huge, especially when there are 4 other siblings contained within that gap. So I can’t claim that I really knew him extremely well or hung out with him a lot when we were growing up. But one thing I can say with absolute certainty about him is he was a hard worker. Always. He started working young. He had his morning paper route and his Saturday nights/early Sunday mornings working at the liquor store, stuffing the Sunday papers, restocking the shelves, and doing any and everything else to be busy enough to suit our Aunt Kathryn, the originator of the idea, “If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.” You’d receive a swift kick (truly) from her if you were caught being idle or looking like you were thinking of being idle. I think he worked seven days a week as a child and likely had earned all 40 of his Social Security quarters by the time he was 17. I think he relished work, and he developed an amazing work ethic which carried through everything he did - his career at Mosiac, his athletic competitions, and any project someone needed help with. Right before Andy discovered something wasn’t quite right with his body, he had been helping Steve deconstruct the woodshed Up North and move it to the other side of the property because I had decided it would be better there (note: my contribution to this project was the idea and the idea only.) No matter where Andy was, he would look around to see what needed to be done and then jump in and help out. You could see that in action with his volunteer tax work, driving seniors to appointments, and helping out at Alex’s swim meets. I know I am missing so many other examples. He was ready, willing, and able to help out with anything. I’m sure it was a big change for him to be the one who needed a hand instead of being the one to offer one, even though all of us always wanted to do whatever we could to help both Andy and Cindy.

The last time Andy came to the cottage, he still wanted to contribute. He and Cindy hauled a car full of food, but they graciously let others prepare it. That meant that Andy had reserves of energy left for engaging in conversations at the dinner table, to everyone’s great joy. I miss those conversations with him. You lose a piece of yourself when you’ve lost someone who shares the same memories as you - or a version of the same memories - and you have to recalibrate how and who you are within the world. He was an easy person to be with. He was good people.

F ALS. And love you guys ❤️