I have so many great memories of Sean. I feel quite lucky and fortunate to have had the opportunity to get to know him. I am thankful that Amy brought this amazing person home. I don’t know where to start. For me, Sean was a big brother. He taught me self-confidence, to trust my math skills – I can still hear him chastise me for reaching for the calculator “That’s why you have a brain!”. He taught me that I would find my people, they just weren’t in high school. He would take me to the lab at the UW to see how brains processed cochlear implants. We would watch Buffy and eat jelly bellies. He taught me how to play Magic: The Gathering and the beauty of the black and red deck. Sean taught me a level of stick-to-itiveness that I don’t think I’d have learned without him. Sean helped teach me to drive, he would knock the roof of the car at yellow lights and sing harmonies along with the radio. He entwined his family with ours taking us to Colorado to see where he was from and hang out with his family. Sean played bass lines on the dashboard of the car. He loved his dogs. He loved his kids and his family. He was political and encouraged us to stand up for what we knew was right.
I see Sean in the faces of his kids. I hear him in my head when I listen to the music he introduced me to. I think of him every time I make a loaf of bread, or wear a goofy shirt, or stand up for someone that can’t do it themselves.