Dear Jess,

In two weeks, on July 14th, we’ll mark the sixth anniversary of your final bow, when you walked off the stage for the last time, as The Fiddler in the Hartford Player’s production of Fiddler on The Roof. The next morning, betrayed by a friend as you slept, you walked off the biggest stage, life, for the last time, and into whatever comes next. You left your body behind, but not your loved ones. To those with ears to hear, you whispered on many hearts, sometimes in the form of a butterfly, or a light fixture, or a beneficial coincidence, other times as a message through a stranger.

Who would’ve imagined at the time that your work was just beginning? Maybe it started as a LOVE>hate banner on the pavilion wall at the community vigil in Hartford’s West Side Park a month after your murder. Or maybe with an unexpected knock on the door and Ian’s request to build a website dedicated to you. Or maybe even much earlier, as an agreement between me and you before we were born. Only the Great Artist knows. Whatever the source, your vine continues to grow, expand, and bear much fruit.

Many have contributed along the way. Your legacy project, once a misty embryonic idea over coffee at The Perc Place, is now an organization with local impact and global tentacles. Your cause in life now has a clear mission, vision, strategic plan, action items, and many hands working together to manifest it. From our new national radio and print media campaigns to our state prison program, from our project at your old high school to measurably decrease interpersonal violence to our new social media video campaign, your legacy project is doing many things to fulfill on our, your, and His mission.

It’s time to pause and say THANK YOU.

THANK YOU to every past and present Board member, every donor, every speaker, volunteer, ally or friend, every follower, and every other person who has ever taken one single action towards ending violence against our girls and women. THANK YOU to every victim who became a survivor, then a thriver, then shared their story in order to empower others. All of you are leaders in your own way. All of you matter. All of you produce ripple effects that will spread until we achieve culture transformation. THANK YOU all, from Jessie, and from victims of violence everywhere.

“You never know how far reaching something you think, say or do today will affect the lives of millions tomorrow.” – B.J. Palmer, The Developer of Chiropractic

My promise remains intact Sweetie. I never have and never will stop loving you. More importantly, I remember what you taught me: try to improve daily at loving EVERYONE as if they were you. Tell others to do the same. And make sure to thank them:)