Jackie Burke (Burke)

Mary--Thanks so much for letting us know.  Hope that the love and support of friends and family will help ease the shock and pain.  

I will always remember Pam for her wonderful laugh and beautiful smile.  I feel lucky now to have spent some time talking to her and Rob at the 50th.

Jackie

Gregory Lewis

Sadness and disbelief, after learning of Pam's passing, have spun my thoughts into tangles. Why does this happen? How to be a good friend? What to say? Today, pondering those thoughts, it seemed perhaps worthwhile to post what I read at our 50th Memoriial Celebration of Life, at the Chapel. With love...

            I think of you, old friends, so far away

            And our past times recalled today

            If only I could visit you and return

            Though long ago, in tears we learned

            There is no turning back our destiny

            What we do and don’t will always be

            But I know we’ll meet again

            Though I can’t say exactly when

            Or how or where your time ends

            And eternity reunites all friends

            I wait for you and watch from here

            As our reunion is getting nearer

            Don’t miss a moment of living well

            Do good and also raise some hell

            Laugh and love and don’t postpone

            For now…now is the only time you own

            I think of you, old friends, so far away

            Though closer with each passing day

                                                Greg Lewis

                                                Woody Creek, CO

                                                February 10, 2019

Francis Chin

Greg, thanks for sharing your poem again  It's even more poignant and evocative now.
 

Rob, I'm so sorry for your loss  I hope you find some solace in knowing that so many of your classmates and others you and Pam have touched are thinking of you and wishing you grace.

Robert Riccio

Dear Rob,

Even though we hardly knew each other, Darsie and I send you our sincerest condolences. We cannot imagine how difficult this must be for you.  We hope that happy memories will comfort you and that time’s passage will ease your pain. 

With our deepest sympathy,

Bob and Darsie Riccio

Fran and Greg- thanks for your comments and lovely (if haunting) poem. 

Mary MacArthur (Wendell)

fyi:  here is a link to the obituary that the family wrote for Pam:  :https://www.dolanfuneral.com/obituary/pamela-p-orchard/

I join Fran and Bob in thanking you, Greg, for sharing your poem again with us.  

Gregory Lewis

I have never read a more thoughtful and moving triobute. I regret I did not know Pam well, but I feel that I know her soul now--good, loving, wise, talented, devoted, honest, beautiful and caring. 

Rob, treasure your time together, find strength iin your love, be brave in the empty hours. 

Shirley Markland

As I note the people who write that they wish they had known Pam better, I am surprised because she knew all of you. At a reunion I would see her having a good conversation with someone I didn't think she knew and I realized it was the person she just happened to be standing next to in line. She devoted her whole attention and interest to whomever she talked with and made everyone a friend. I have been so honored to be her friend since Batt North. Pam and Rob were always an incredible team and PamandRob was really one united word. On top of celebrating the amazing life of Pam, I wanted to note something that I saw last week. I had known that ArtsEmerson in Boston had named a stage after Rob when he retired, but it didn't register. Last week I got an email from ArtsEmerson advertising Mikhail Baryshnikov coming to be in The Orchard on the Orchard Stage at the Paramount Center.  How truly amazing!!  What a stupendous couple and I celebrate them both.