Last night a group of Dan's Loyola High School classmates met to figure out how to best memorialize him. As I looked around the room I wondered how Dan would have felt about this.

Here were people that cared tremendously about him. The people that were in the room were all from different cliques when we were in high school. Dan, as he did in life, brought us together in death. It didn't matter who you were he would be your friend. Everyone in the room was willing to make a sacrifice to make sure that Dan's memory would live on in a way that we could be proud. At one point Matt Jackson leaned forward to me an said that he wanted to have something that he could bring his child to in ten years.

He said what we were all thinking. Dan's memory will go beyond the LHS class of '90. We love him to the point that we want to let unborn children know what he was like. When I have children I will certainly bring them to Loyola's campus. I will bring them to the spot where my friend is memorialized. I will tell them about the horrible events that occurred on Septembe 11, 2001 and I will damn sure tell them what it means to be a true man for others. I know how Dan would have felt about the meeting. He would have loved every minute, smiling ear to ear because he would have been hanging out with friends.

Jeremy
jmlippenholz@yahoo.com