(May 20, 1957 – May 10, 2001)
By Laurel M. Schwass-Drew, his wife of 18 years
The original photograph for this image of Jim and myself was taken by a dear friend of ours, Sean C. Dwyer, of Rindge N.H., in January 1985 in Philadelphia. I screenprinted it onto bookcloth. Jim was an artist and screen-printer, as am I, so I thought it was a fitting choice of medium. I chose it to be very simple and straightforward in appearance because that's how Jim lived his life.
The photograph below shows Jim with his kayak on the beach of Lake Atsion in Atsion, N.J. This picture was taken by me; I believe it was August 1999. We had been camping and kayaking in the Wharton State Forest of New Jersey-the Pine Barrens were one of Jim's favorite places to go and it was also the first place we went camping, before we were married. Jim loved the outdoors and enjoyed hiking, camping, canoeing, kayaking, swimming, biking, and backpacking, all of which he started doing as a Boy Scout.
The paper on which this description is printed has water lilies on it, which I chose because we saw and enjoyed so many of them whenever we went kayaking on various lakes, rivers and ponds. Water lilies are also a mythological symbol of eternal life.
Jim was a giving man and believed in the good of all people and their ability to learn and improve themselves. I believe that, had he known the widespread positive outcome of his organ donation, he would be very well pleased.
I know that it has helped myself and the rest of our family and friends to know that he lives on in others.