First Anniversary-December 17th, 2011

A year has passed since Maryse left this earth, leaving all her pain and suffering behind. That was a good thing, for her. But her beautiful memories live on in my heart and soul... It has been a difficult year for me with many downs and ups... more downs than ups that I could count. But life must go on...

Many of her friends did not have the opportunity to come say their last good-byes and this first year anniversary remembrance is dedicated to offer them a glimpse of the last rites given to her. Maryse's funeral services were held at Stanfill Funeral Homes, and I thank my friend Bill Martinez, its Director and owner, and his staff for having provided us with a beautiful setting for this sad event. All the fresh orchid flowers were sent from Thailand by my dear friend Banjong and my thanks go to him and to his wife, also my friend, Ratsuda. I thank Mieko and Rose, members of the local Ikebana society to which Maryse belonged, for having spent an entire evening to fashion the beautiful arrangements that adorned the entire space. Their labor continued and consumed their next half day of in-situ work. I thank my dear friend Keith and Maryse's kid brother Huy for the photos used in this video celebrating Maryse's first anniversary.

The service was scheduled on December 23rd, 2010 during a busy time of the year. I thank my in-laws, Rev. Theodore Lewis and Connie Houghton who have braved the busiest time for travel; and I thank my cousins Phuong from California and Phuc and his niece Mai who came from Canada to attend Maryse's service in Miami.

My dear nephew Herbie made a special trip from Denver to come MC'ing the service for his aunt and I thank him for his flawless work as master of ceremony. I thank all my dear friends, some of whom I have lost track for many years, who came to share my sorrow, and that of my daughter VyVy and my son Mac-Long; and all other members of my and of Maryse's family, among whom, Kim Phuong who traveled from Houston, and Diep from Philadelphia.

The catering service was provided by my friend Elizabeth's Catering by Lovables and I thank my daughter VyVy for enlisting her friend's service for the specially prepared food from Thailand.

Maryse's portrait was one of the many black and white I made for her and the distinctive new custom framing was done by my friend, the Godfather Bob Menconi. Bob and Monica, thank you!

My thanks are also extended to many other individuals, too numerous to mention here. Your expression of sympathy from near and far gave me the support that I needed.

Many of the objects you see in these photos are Maryse's personal favorite belongings. Some of them were special to her and they helped her cope with the darkest days and provided her with solace when she was not well. She was very proud of her paintings and some of them were displayed to accompany her during the service.

The music you hear was heard during the service which was Mozart's Requiem. It was requested by my daughter VyVy to use for her Mom. In this video, you hear two excerpts: Requiem and Lacrimosa, performed by the Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert Von Karajan.

The second part of the video has photos taken during a commemorative planting of a tree in memory of Maryse. The original idea was from my friend Christiane Tyson (Chris) and I thank her for her thoughtfulness and her generosity to make arrangements for a special place of planting in the Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) in Coral Gables. For this beautiful memorial, I thank Christiane and her husband, my friend, Christopher Tyson, who made a very special effort to come to the planting event that took place exactly four months after Maryse's passing, on April 17th, 2011. I thank Dr. Patrick Griffith, Executive Director of MBC to have personally provided all the material and his labor of love to nurse the Bodhi tree, whose scientific name is Ficus religiosa, in MBC's nurseries prior to planting.

The Bo tree that was planted belonged to Maryse and instead of it growing in her back yard, it is now growing in a beautiful, serene and spacious secluded part of MBC. This tree is given tender loving care by everyone at MBC and it is in the hands of botanical professionals who will make sure it will grow to its fullest potential. For this, I thank the staff of MBC who allows me to come visit often at times I feel the needs to be alone with my thoughts.

I thank my daughter VyVy, whom I love deeply and unconditionally, who traveled from her home in London to Miami to comfort me during a very trying time. Her husband Nathan could not find a way to leave London due to bad weather so this video is for him. Lastly, I thank my special son Mac-Long for being my life's companion.

Thank you for the time you spent visiting this site and for reading. When you have time, come to this space to take a leisure look at how Maryse's tree is doing. It will be a beautiful tree for all of us to see for many years to come.

Please click on the photo below to see the commemorative video in a new browser window that will start automatically after download. The photo shows Maryse's ficus tree as of December 13th, 2011.