"His
master
replied, 'Well done, good
and faithful servant!
You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge
of
many things.
Come and share your master's happiness!'
Matthew 25:23, NIV
Hi
all,
I
can
say with complete and
total honesty, this is the most difficult newsletter intro I have
ever
written. We were all immensely sad to learn of Mr. Dye's
passing. But in the last few days, that grief has been
joined by
something else: immense gratitude for his life and what he gave us
during it. And what he'll continue to give us even though
now he
lives on the other side. It hurts so much that we have lost
someone who, though most of us did not know him, touched our lives
so
deeply. But I think through our pain we need to remember
some of
what Touched
taught us:
"I
just want you to know there's nothing to be afraid of. On
one side, there is life. And on
the other...there is life, too." ~~Andrew, Random Acts
"It
hurts so awfully bad when a
beautiful soul is taken away from us. But
it's never really taken away."
~~Tess, Unidentified Female
"God
can take the saddest things
and turn them into something beautiful." ~~
Monica, Til We Meet Again
"Grieving
is a very necessary
process." ~~Andrew, The Empty Chair
Andrew:
In the midst of death we
are in life. Monica:
Of whom shall we seek for
succour? Tess:
Only Thee, O Lord, only Thee. ~~from
The Anatomy Lesson, adapted
from the Book of Common Prayer
"You
sacrifice to God your broken
spirit and your broken heart. That
is all He wants you to give
Him: everything that hurts and then let Him restore you."
~~Andrew, I Do
In the past few days, I have
heard from so many people about how John Dye, by bringing
Andrew to
life, helped them confront tragedy and loss. He helped
them
sacrifice their broken spirits and hearts and find healing in
the love
of God. I myself can attest to that. I started
watching Touched when I was 12 and faced my first
major loss when I was 16. During every single
period of
mourning after that, I
have thought of Andrew and sought
solace in his words and gentle compassion and the idea of this
utterly
lovely creature who is with us in our final moments. My
story is
by no means rare.
And now
we find ourselves mourning John long before any of us thought
we
would. It seems unreal and even a
little
cruel and we may be feeling things more deeply than we ever
could have
imagined. But we have to let him help us through this,
too.
We have to remember Andrew's compassion. We have to
remember Doc
Hock's unfailing dedication to his beliefs. And we have
to
remember that one day, years ago, a man was asked if he'd want
to
portray an angel of death... a role that was by no means going
to be
easy... and that he said yes to the challenge and viewed it as
an
honor. We have to remember Mr. Dye's dedication to
the
homeless, the hungry, and the suffering, too.
So, in that spirit of
remembrance and gratitude, JABB will continue. Whether
he ever
knew it in this life or not, JABB is one of Mr. Dye's gifts to
us. Whatever positive feeling or experience you have
ever taken
from JABB: it happened only because of his dedication to his
work and
to making the world a better, stronger, more loving
place. I am
not saying that continuing will be easy. Things won't be
"normal"
for a while. We won't force ourselves to be funny.
But
neither will we stifle the humor that might just help us
through
this. Our challenge will be in grieving and remembering
and
continuing to celebrate his life together. There may
come a
time when some of us are ready to laugh and others
aren't. And
that's okay. If it's too difficult for some to stay, no
one will
fault you for that. Andrew is right. Grieving *is*
a very
necessary process but it's not a universal one in the sense
that what
works for one person will necessarily work for another.
But we'll
do the best we can to continue on together in a respectful,
uplifting
manner because Mr. Dye deserves to be remembered always.
Before we get to the
newsletter itself, I'd like to ask that people please continue
to pray
for Mr. Dye's family and friends. And if you would like
to donate
to a cause that was meaningful to him, it sounds like the
family has
selected the Amory Food Pantry and Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric
AIDS
Foundation as recipients for memorial gifts. Fans are
also
encouraged to give to charities that are meaningful to
them.
Simply reaching out to people with kindness in your daily
lives would
also be a wonderful tribute to Mr. Dye. In the coming
weeks,
we'll discuss how we can honor Mr. Dye's life as a group,
especially on
his birthday.
Thank you for being a
part
of JABB. And thank you to John Dye for giving us so
much.
God bless him and God
bless
all who love him.
May God's peace be
with you, Jenni
Sharing
in Our Gratitude for the Life of John Carroll Dye
Since Tuesday night, we
have been
collecting public tributes to John Dye on our main page.
If you have
not yet written a tribute and would like to, please
contact me
(Jenni). Additionally, so many of us have found
ourselves sharing
with each other just how much gratitude we feel towards
John... for
some serious things and for some not so serious
things. So
members of the JABB YahooGroup joined together to create
this
list. I will continue to update this list for as
long as people
would like to make additions. So, again, please
contact me if you
would like to add to this list.
Now, let us remember and be grateful!
From
Rebecca:
I am grateful for his loving presence on this earth
although I
never directly knew him I felt as though I did. He
definitely was
a very loving soul and the world is a better place for
him being here.
Because of JD I have met some really wonderful people
that have
become very special people in my life.
I am grateful for JD giving life to two of my favorite
characters
of all time, Doc and Andrew.
Although we have lost a great person heaven has gained
a great
soul and he will be greatly missed by many people.
I thank God
for JD, for his sweet presence and the wonderful work he
has left
behind.
From Angelica:
Because of him, I've improved my English. (For those
who don't
know, I'm from Brazil, so English is not my first
language. And I
didn't attend any language school.)
Andrew!
JABB and the friends I've found there.
"That" lovely smile, which always makes me feel
better.
He inspired me to be a better person. Actually,
everybody around
me is thankful for this.
Doc Hock singing "Jingle Bells". It's so cute!
The Umbrella Dance. It's uplifting!!!
From Jenni:
Like so many, I am so grateful
to him for bringing together so
many treasured friendships. In the past few days,
I have felt so
blessed by the outpouring of warmth and kindness from so
many of
them.
Being a typical introvert, I'm
not the most assertive of
people. Sometimes that's still a struggle.
But via Doc and
Andrew,
John taught me to stick to your heart and to your
beliefs even when
it's difficult. And being here on JABB has taught
me so much
about how to voice my opinions in a non-wishy washy
way. So I'm
grateful to him for making me less wishy washy.
I felt so inspired watching his
work, mainly with Touched
but
definitely with his
other portrayals, too. This inspiration often
expressed itself
in, well, interesting ways. Because of him, I
learned to
scrapbook, design web pages, sew a bit, paint novelty
buckets, and
more. I thank him for those hours of contentment
and fun.
There have been times in my life
when I have been very sad and
very much in emotional pain over the loss of a loved
one. And
then I would watch Touched
and Andrew had an uncanny knack of saying, sometimes
verbatim, just
what I needed to hear. I know that I'm indebted to
the show's
writers for that, too. But it was the gentle,
positive, credible
delivery of those lines that healed.
I am grateful for the smiles I
get when I see flannel shirts,
leather jackets, Converses, tool belts, pocket watches,
and more.
The smiles may be a lil tremulous now but they still
come. They
always will.
Orange juice mixed with ginger
ale. It is yummy.
I know this is going to sound
corny and probably over-dramatic
but... I'm gonna have to say that I'm grateful to John
for my
sanity. There have been times when the sadness and
the cruelty in
the world seemed so overwhelming. And I'd seek
solace in watching Touched
or in writing
about Andrew. Or in viewing Journey to a
Hate-Free Millennium.
Both gave me hope that there are people out there, be
they human or
angel, who actively choose goodness and kindness.
And that got me
through. And it will continue to, I know.
I'm just really, really
grateful that God let him be here with us
for a time.
From Nicole:
His work brought lots of people together. I've made
some great
friends because of him.
For making me smile every time you would dance with an
umbrella,
gobble like a turkey, or maybe just speak some
comforting words that
somebody somewhere needed to hear.
For embracing the role of Andrew and helping to
give
comfort and strength to people around the world.
From Tara:
I'm just grateful for his episode "The Pact" because
it hit close
to home for me. I felt alot of what the girls felt about
AIDS and
battle health problems everyday. But he was so good at
pointing out we
need to keep living. I have to keep remembering that. =)
Sometimes a
person can make a difference in what they say on TV.
John Dye did that
for me.
Now, I'd
like to
close with an excerpt from a traditional Irish hymn, "Be
Thou My
Vision." Lyrics are by Dallan Forgaill, English verse
by Eleanor
H. Hull.
Be
thou my wisdom, thou my true word, I
ever with thee and thou with me Lord; Thou
my great Father, I thy true son; Thou
in me dwelling, and I with thee one...
High
King of heaven, my victory won, May
I reach heaven's joys, O Bright Heaven's sun!; Heart
of my own heart, whatever befall, Still
be my vision, O Ruler of all.
(Photo Credits: The photographs used on this page are
from
"Touched by an Angel" and owned by: CBS Productions,
Caroline
Productions, and Moon Water Productions; "Campus Man" and
owned by: RKO
Pictures; "Once Upon a Christmas" and owned by: Ardent
Productions, Legacy
Filmworks, Lincoln Field Productions, Sterling/Winters
Company Studios,
and Viacom Productions Inc.; "Twice Upon a Christmas" and
owned by:
Viacom Productions Inc.; "Best of the Best" and owned by:
Best of the
Best Films, Kuys Entertainment, SVS Films, and The Movie
Group Inc.;
"Making the Grade" and owned by: Cannon Film Distributors
and
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; "Journey to a Hate Free Millennium"
and owned by:
New Light Media; "Tour of Duty" and owned by: New World
Television; "Promised Land" and owned by:
CBS
Productions. They are not being used
to seek
profit.)