October 24th
Three years ago today on Monday, October 24th, 2005, my friend, mentor and boss was killed in an accident on the Harlem River. I can’t believe it’s been three years. I spent most of that day calling his closest friends to tell them that he was missing. Most of those people I had just started to get to know and some I had only heard stories about. I was in total shock, remaining calm, hopeful on the phone while trying to explain that there was accident and that Jim was missing. I woke up the next morning and started balling in the shower, finally realizing that it was real and that going to work would never be as interesting, fun, promising, exciting again. That Wednesday (10/26/05) hundreds of us searched the Harlem river for him along with the police divers and found nothing. Every dark spot underneath the water, every group of birds hovering, every runoff pipe along the seawall was filled with hope and dread. The following day, while more than two thousand gathered for a memorial service, police divers found his body. The tributes that day were for a man I was extremely lucky to know, an inspiration for how life should be lived.
